


Goodbye to a World

by Inelegantartist



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Aliens, Depression, Dib is a mess, Five Stages of Grief, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Original Character(s), Outer Space, Slow Burn, Swearing, ZADF, ZaDr, also he's like 17, more characters to tag as the story progresses, more tags as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-09-24 21:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9787994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inelegantartist/pseuds/Inelegantartist
Summary: “Me?! What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you knock me out and take me up here with you?!” It's not like Dib is surprised that Zim did this to him. It's just that frankly, he really isn't in the mood. He has other more important things that he could be doing right now. Like...Homework, or...Staring at his bedroom wall...Anything other than having to be stuck around this irritating moron.Zim pushed Dib out of his way and stood up next to him, only at eye level since Dib was on his knees. “You got your own self knocked-out, stupid Dib! And I've only brought you up here because your feeble little planet couldn't wait for me to destroy it, so it went and did it to itself!”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! :)  
> So this fic is based off a dream that I had! It's given me a lot of inspiration to actually write this all out! This is also my first fic i've ever written, and i'm pretty nervous, so bare with me. I'll try to keep the updates as consistent as I can. This definitely won't have the same humor as the show, but i'll do my best to still have some. it's probably going to be more serious, but I try to keep everyone as in character as I can.
> 
> The title is named after the song [Goodbye to a World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2TE0DjdNqI) . A friend mentioned to me how well the song fit with this fic, so I had to name it after it.  
> Also the art is done by me at [Softspacegays](http://www.softspacegays.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. Give me a follow is you would like! More art to be added later.

Dib has just woken up, but he hasn't opened his eyes yet. His eyes feel too heavy to try and open. He doesn't even remember going to bed. Then again, the surface he's lying on doesn't feel like his bed either. It's hard and uncomfortable. 

Where was he? Did he pass out?

He tries to take a deep breath, but the air feels too thin, causing it to come up short. He feels awful, and just now registered the pounding headache he can feel at the back of his head. This immediately makes him feel queasy and he squeezes his eyes tighter as he sits up slowly. His whole body aches and he honestly just wants to go back to sleep without dealing with whatever problem he is in now. 

Once Dib was sat all the way up, he blinks open his eyes to check his surroundings only to find that his vision is completely blurry. God, he wishes he wasn't so blind. He's had glasses his whole life but it can get annoying that he needs two magnified pieces of glass sitting in front of his eyes just to see things. Even though Dib can't see clearly he can still tell that the space he's in is very small, but he can't make out any shapes, and everything he can make out is distinctly purple.

Dib looks down and squints to begin searching for his glasses that could maybe be laying somewhere near him. Squinting won't help him see jack shit but it's more or less just an instinctive reaction for him when he's not wearing his glasses. Dib's hands sweep all around to every edge he can reach but he feels nothing except the smooth metal floor on his skin. There's also no sudden sharp angle separating the floor and walls. It all just curves together like some sort of upside down dome.

Well, just sitting here isn't going to do anything for him, but the ceiling is too short for him to stand up. Dib can hardly see it for himself since there isn't a lot of light, but he can feel the hair at the top of his head hitting it when he sits straight up. There's a thin strip of light coming from a thin slot in the ceiling that shines in his eyes when he slouches a bit. It's probably some sort of door, and his best bet to getting out of here.

Dib reaches above to feel around for some sort of grip or latch he could use to open the door to whatever weird dome thing he had been put in. There's no handle to grab onto, but he slips his fingers through the slot, just wide enough to fit half of his hand through, and pushes to see if he can slide open the door instead. With some force applied to the door it gives way and jerks open. There isn't a huge amount of light that pours through the opening but it looks like it'll be enough to make out what's around him. 

Dib slowly rises out of whatever it is he was put in, and takes in his surroundings. He doesn't even need his glasses to immediately recognize where he is, and he's not surprised at all. Honestly, the sheer amount of the color purple should have made it obvious. It's just a little bit bigger than it used to be. 

Zim had expanded the size of his voot cruiser by a small portion, just a small space behind the pilot seat to fit more things like gear and weapons. It looks like he added a storage hatch to it too. But why was Dib in there? Probably another one of Zim's bullshit plans to get rid of him so he can attempt to destroy the Earth again. It's crazy how adamant he still is after six years of trying and failing every single time.

Dib has known for a while now that it's never going to happen. That doesn't mean Zim is never going to stop, but his plans have just become too easy to stop these days. It's like he's barely even trying. Though lately Dib has noticed that Zim hasn't been around much lately, so maybe he's actually been planning something bigger. Not like it's actually going to work out though. 

Dib rolls his eyes and lifts himself from the hatch. The quick movement makes him go dizzy and he hesitates for a moment while shaking his head slightly to re-gain balance. He hasn't eaten in a while, and he doesn't even know how long he had been passed out. It's caused him to have very little energy, and his eyes feel heavy. But that could be because he'd just woken up.

Zim doesn't seem to be inside the voot cruiser, which is a little weird. Did he put it on auto-pilot and send Dib into space by himself? Maybe it was to give him more time to put his plan into action back on Earth? This is the only logical thing he could thing of at the moment, though he is a little confused on why Zim would use his own ship for it. He could have just made a little pod to trap Dib in for good so there wasn't a chance of him coming back. 

Did he just forget that Dib has his own ship too, and that he knows how to fly these things? Granted it does take a while to travel in space, and he doesn't know how far away he actually is. But still, he'll get back eventually and probably just in time to stop Zim from doing whatever it is he's doing. Just like always. 

God dammit, he probably took Dib's glasses too so he would have trouble seeing the monitor. This does bode a bit of a problem since Dib is practically blind as a bat. Maybe he could figure out which controls are which by making out the general shape of each one. 

The ship is too small for Dib to stand up in, so he crawls around on his knees to the front of the seat and sits in it. While he's busy squinting and trying to tell the buttons apart there's a sudden bang that came from the outside of the voot. It's probably just some small meteoroids, right? There's no reason to worry about possible space monsters coming to attack a small, lonely drifting ship. No, that wouldn't happen. This is an Irken ship after all and they're only a race that has taken planets from others so they probably have many enemies. 

The banging starts back up again and is louder this time. Dib panics and fumbles to hide himself behind the pilot seat. He can't do anything since he can't see! So maybe if it is other aliens and they don't see anyone inside, they'll think it's empty and go away. 

The banging now turns into small footsteps walking across the roof. By now Dib realizes he should have hidden in the storage hatch for a better chance of not being seen, but it's too late by now. He's just going to have to stay put and risk being caught.

The footsteps slow more toward the front of the ship and stop. Dib sits and listens carefully. The footsteps don't come back but are replaced by little taps to the windshield and some faint beeping. Dib suddenly realizes the very real possibility that whoever this is could open it and come inside. Then the vacuum of space would rupture his lungs and he would very much be dead. Quickly he takes a deep breath and holds it for extra precaution while also squeezing his eyes shut for as long as he can. 

Just like he thought, the hissing sound of the airlock fills his ears and all sound after that disappears. After a few seconds Dib can hear it seal close and someone place themselves on the seat he's hiding behind. He opens his eyes and as quietly as possible catches his breath. 

Immediately after, a voice that Dib knows far too well says, “Computer, run a diagnostic scan on the hull of the ship to check for any remaining damage.”

This springs Dib into action and he rapidly spins himself around to where Zim can see him and shouts, “ZIM!”

Obviously Zim wasn't expecting something so sudden to happen because he practically jumps a foot out of his seat and looks at Dib with lowered antennas and wide eyes. But as soon as he realizes who is in front of him he directly changes his demeanor and his expressions shift into something angry. He bares his sharp teeth and yells, “What is wrong with you?!”

“Me?! What the hell is wrong with you?! Why did you knock me out and take me up here with you?!” It's not like Dib is surprised that Zim did this to him. It's just that frankly, he really isn't in the mood. He has other more important things that he could be doing right now. Like...Homework, or...Staring at his bedroom wall...Anything other than having to be stuck around this irritating moron.

Zim pushed Dib out of his way and stood up next to him, only at eye level because Dib was on his knees. “You got your own self knocked-out, stupid Dib! And I've only brought you up here because your feeble little planet couldn't wait for me to destroy it, so it went and did it to itself!”

“What are you talking about? The world was fine last time I checked!” Of course Zim has to be lying, something like that wouldn't just happen without Dib knowing about it. 

“A lot can happen in a very short amount of time, Dib.” 

“No, no, no, you're lying to – you're trying to trick me.” Dib isn't dumb. The world couldn't have just suddenly ended. Wouldn't have scientists or something seen it coming and warned everyone else? “This is just another one of your dumb ass plans to get me out of your way.”

“Zim has done no such thing!” He turns around to continue yelling while angrily pointing out into the solar system at nothing in particular. “It was MY job to eradicate the life on Earth, and now that's been taken from me! What am I going to tell the Tallest?”

Dib is silent for a moment, taking in what Zim just told him. He really can't tell if this is part of some scheme Zim has planned out or not. It has to be. If the world actually did get destroyed, he would have left Dib there to experience the pain, not saved him from all the destruction. 

He's going to have to see for himself what happened. “I don't believe you. I need to see.” 

"I don't care if you believe me or not!" Zim throws his hands in the air and starts to gesticulate wildly and unnecessarily, "I have somewhere that I need to get to, and it's more important than me wasting my time to take you back for nothing!"

"For _nothing_?! You do realize that you denying to take me back just makes me think that you're lying even more." Dib accuses. 

"Why would I lie about this?!" 

"Why would yo-," The question makes Dib huff a laugh and he raises his hand to count on his fingers the points he's about to make, "Well, first of all, you're always lying. Two, this could totally be one of your shitty plans. You're probably just telling me this stuff to try and discourage me enough to not want to try and stop you anymore. Well what are you gonna do? Leave me out here somehow? Kill me? You could've just sent me up here alone while I was unconscious, ya know. You really didn't think this through. What the hell made you think I was gonna believe you?!" 

Zim's hands are gripping his head and he looks like he's going to explode, "JUST SHUT UP! That wasn't my plan, because my plans are always amazing!"

"If your plans are so amazing then how come they've never really worked out?" Dib raises an eyebrow at Zim while asking.

"Well, uh.. OH! I actually can take you back it turns out! Look at that!" Zim quickly changes the subject matter and Dib can't believe that Zim just decided to take him back all to avoid answering a question. Wow. 

“Good.” Dib leans against the wall and slides down to sit on the floor. His head still hurts pretty bad, so the yelling didn't help, and he can feel it right behind his eyes. Right before he is about to let his eyes fall shut to rest them for a while Dib remembers that he needs his glasses to be able to even see what's going on in front of him. If he can't even tell a child apart from a trash can with them off, all he's going to see when looking at the world is a giant blue blob. 

“Please tell me you have my glasses.” He tells Zim, even though Dib really doesn't expect him to have them anyways. He can only hope. 

“Glasses?” Zim asks, sounding confused. “Oh, those little warpy eye-windows you use to aid your inferior human vision.” He sounds disgusted for a second, then goes back to a normal tone. “Yes, I do actually.” 

Oh, thank god. Dib closes his eyes and breathes a sigh of relief. He didn't know what he was going to do if he had to keep going blind. It not only makes things more frustrating to do, but it can give him a big headache when he goes too long without wearing his glasses. 

Something hits against Dib's chest and makes a small clinking sound. As soon he sets his hand on it he can feel that it's his glasses. Zim must've thrown them at him. Jerk. They could've hit the floor or wall and broke. But, it's not like Zim cares about any one else's well-being but his own. 

Dib unfolds his glasses and gently puts them on. Fuckin' great. Looks like they're already broken anyways. A long crack runs from the top of his left lens to the bottom of it. Well, at least it's not major, and they're still wearable. Dib's just happy that he can see now, but he'll have to be more careful with them. 

Dib starts to look around the ship, all along the cables and purple interior. If someone had asked him to draw out this ship from the inside out, he could probably do it perfectly without a detail missed. It's all ingrained in his mind from all the years Zim has been on Earth, and the number of times Dib has sat inside this voot cruiser. He lost count a long time ago. 

He looks over at Zim and notices that he's not wearing his usual getup. It's the purple suit he wears when he has to go out into the cold void of space. Probably because that's where he just recently came from. Why was he out there though? Dib did hear him say something to his computer about checking for damage on the ship. Maybe he was doing repairs on it. 

Zim doesn't seem to be in the mood for conversation, which is perfectly fine for Dib. There is just one thing he wants to know, though, “Hey, How long is it gonna take to get home?”

“If you were listening to me earlier, you would know that there is no home to go back to.” Zim turns his head to give Dib an angry look, and Dib just glares back. 

Zim scowls at him before informing, “A few hours.”

Dib groans and covers his face with his hands, frustrated at the amount of time he has to wait. It's not even that long, but it's not like there's a lot to keep him occupied. The only thing he can do is just sit here. At least there's outer space right outside the window he can look at. That's something that he could stare at for hours at a time.

“Oh, stop griping you pathetic worm, there's worse places you could be right now." Zim pauses for a second, "Like on Earth, burning with all the other little dirt-monkeys.” 

“Whatever.” Dib ignores Zim after that and decides to just lay down. He sighs and stares up at the purple ceiling of the voot and the cables that run along it. The pounding in his head is still there, along with a specific area in the back of his head that aches. Like he was hit hard there with something. Zim did say that Dib got knocked out, but he can't remember how. The last thing Dib remembers is sitting in his room, researching stuff for a school project. What could've happened in between then and now?

He was actually going to go to Zim's house after that since Dib hadn't seen him around for a few days, and while nothing was probably going on, he can't help but be suspicious still sometimes. It's always good to be extra cautious, even though he hasn't been into chasing Zim around as much since he was a kid. 

Now look what's happened. He let his guard down for a while and Zim practically abducted him. Which is actually confusing to Dib. Well, not the being abducted part. It's more or less just why Zim did it. He starts to think about everything Zim has told him. That the World is apparently going through some kind of self-destruction. An apocalypse technically. Dib has absolutely no reason to believe him at all, because it sounds ridiculous coming from Zim. It's highly unlikely to have happened. It's gotta be just another plan of Zim's. 

He can't help but have a small feeling wriggling deep down in his chest though, that maybe Zim is telling the truth. And it worries him. If this was one of Zim's plans to get Dib away from Earth so he would be unable to stop it, why would he turn back after Dib pestered him enough to? Unless it really is destroyed and Zim actually succeeded, somehow, without Dib knowing anything? And he's taking him back to rub his victory in Dib's face? No that's stupid. Dib would've known. Zim always tells Dib's his evil plans before he actually tries to carry them out. 

Plus, like Dib thought before, Zim would've let him die. Why would Zim be so hell bent on killing all of humanity and then leave Dib alive at the end of it? He supposes that leaving him alive would be even worse, since he'd have to live with failing all of humanity. But why was it ever his fucking job to save everyone anyways? Just because he's the only one smart enough to actually ever see that Zim is an alien. Everyone should be grateful Dib has been there, honestly. If it wasn't for him, they would've been doomed from the moment Zim got there. Even though Zim may be an idiot, he's still got some pretty intense machinery and could do some intense damage with it.

Dib doesn't even bother trying to tell anyone anymore that Zim is an alien. No one's ever believed him and no one ever will. it's frustrating as hell, but he's accepted it. If he's managed to practically keep Earth safe for this long on his own, he can do it for however long he needs to. 

Dib sighs deeply and turns his head to look out of the windshield. At least the stars are always there when he needs them, and he's lucky that it's quiet right now so that he can relax and zone out without distractions. He's surprised at how quiet it is too, since when Zim is around, he always has to say something. Dib keeps his mouth shut though so he doesn't get Zim started. 

Even though the floor is uncomfortable, after a bit of time laying there staring out at the stars, Dib's eyes start to slide shut. There's only so long he can stay awake if there's nothing to do. As he's dozing off he can hear Zim start talking again, but it's quiet and he's basically too out of it to pay attention. It doesn't take him long to finally fall asleep. 

\--

A kick into his side, not too hard but not exactly soft either, is what wakes Dib up. He grumbles a little bit from the rude awakening and turns from his stomach onto his side to give Zim a dirty look. 

“We're here.” Zim stares down at him with a grim expression. It's really rare for him to act as serious as he has been. Dib is actually terrified at this point to get up and look out the window. His heart is beating extremely hard against his ribs while he sits up and lifts himself from the floor and onto his knees. There's no reason to stall this so he immediately makes his way over to the windshield and looks down at the Earth.

What he sees before him sends a wave of shock through his whole body. From what he can see of the world, it's all just disaster. Complete planetary disaster. It's almost unrecognizable. One side looks like a hole blew out from the inside. Or what it looks like when a bullet gets shot through an apple, except the bullet is molten lava and the apple chunks are chunks of Earth. Even though the explosion was on one side of Earth, the capacity of it had caused the rest of the world to begin to break apart. It was cracking into pieces. Dib could see the glow of fire and lava from within the gaps. 

Dib's stomach felt like it was in his throat and there was a broken record in his head of just oh no oh god no no no. He can't believe this is actually real. it can't be. It feels like a nightmare. All he can do is watch in horror while everything continues to go to shit. His vision goes blurry from the tears that quickly fill his eyes and then break to run down his cheeks. And he still has yet to make a sound. 

Apparently Zim decides this would be a good time for more of his commentary on the situation, and breaks Dib's attention away from the burning world below, “SEE?! What am I going to do?! I was specially assigned this mission and now LOOK! It's UN-salvageable! Your pathetic world couldn't keep itself together! The Tallest are going to -” 

Zim's voice fades into the background of Dib's subconscious. All he can do is stare at Zim with wide eyes while he rambles on, even though he can't even hear him anymore. 

Dib doesn't dare look back out the window. He doesn't know what to do. His breath is coming out at a rapid pace and his heart feels like it is going to beat out of his chest. The dizzying feeling of falling overtakes him and he has to spin around to sit and lean against the wall or else he might just pass out. Chills run through his body and only when he brings his hands up to his chest does Dib realize how violently he's shaking. He puts his hands together and squeezes them to reduce the shaking a little. It's something to focus on other than what is happening outside the voot at this moment. 

Dib tries to think of something to say. Anything. But nothing will come out. He feels too delirious to form any coherent thoughts right now. So many things are rushing through his mind so quickly, trying to find to find an answer as to how. But his brain won't slow down enough for him to process any of it.

None of this seems real. Dib knows what he saw, but he's trying to convince himself that this might be some sort of extremely vivid dream. It's not like he hasn't had equally as horrifying nightmares before. But dreams have a different feel to them. He never thinks before he acts in them, like each action to the next is just a reaction. It's like watching a movie and he doesn't know what he's going to do or say next. 

But this is real life. Where Dib is forced to go through every intruding thought that comes up, whether he wants them or not. That's how he knows this is real. Dib draws his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them. His leg starts to bounce when he realizes that he might actually throw up, considering how twisted his stomach feels. Usually moving parts of his body or fiddling with something helps him to not be sick since it distracts from that feeling.

A small jerk to the ship that causes Dib to almost fall over pulls him out of his brain fog. He looks to the front and notices that they've started to move again. “What are you doing?” Is the first words that comes out of him.

“Weren't you listening? I told you that I have to get to the Armada.” Zim is fiddling with the buttons on the console. “My communications are down because of the damage the Voot cruiser took in an earthquake while escaping the planet.”

Okay well, that's Zim's problem. But what is Dib going to do now? “What about me?” 

“What about you?”

“Well, what am I going to do? I can't go back to..” Dib's sentence trails off and he never finishes, looking down to stare blankly at the floor in front of him. 

“No,” Zim looks over to him and squints slightly. “I'll figure out what to do with you.” 

Zim goes back to what the was doing and focuses on flying the ship. Dib is still staring at the floor, and he can hardly think right now. He can't think. His mind is blank. All he can do is just sit there, he doesn't even want to move. Sleeping seems like the best thing he could do right now. To make everything disappear for a while. So he doesn't have to think about anything, should something come up in his mind. And surprisingly, even though Dib's gotten more than enough sleep these past several hours, he feels like he could easily pass out here and now. 

So he lays down facing the wall, curling in on himself. Dib's glasses clink against the floor and sit awkwardly on his face now that the side of his head is set against the floor. It's uncomfortable so he pulls them off his face and sets them in front of him. Dib stares at the blurry purple metal in front of him with a hollow look for what feels like hours. But he doesn't know how much time passes when he zones out, completely numb to everything. He doesn't care enough to pay attention. Eventually Dib's eyes slide shut as he falls into a dark dreamless state.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're interested so far!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Can’t you use your hyper speed to get there faster?” If even Zim’s hyper speed isn’t working because of the damage on the ship, Dib might just start panicking. Dying of thirst in space at the age of 17 isn’t exactly one of the ways that he wants to go out.
> 
> Zim drops his hand and faces forward again. “Technically, yes I could, but I don’t -” He stops and looks over at Dib sideways.

Dib slowly opens his eyes and blinks a few times. They burn a little bit so he brings his hands up to rub at them until they start to water slightly. He yawns and rolls onto his back, bringing his hands up to stretch out. For a moment he forgets where he is and is oblivious to all his troubles. What a sweet moment it was, because as soon as everything comes rushing back to him, all of his comfort and relaxation disappears. 

Everything happened so quickly. Was it even real?

  
The rush of stress and anxiety makes his body go tense and he doesn't want to move. Almost as if lying still freezes time and delays him having to face dealing with anything. He would stay frozen here forever if that were the case, but he knows it's not. Doesn't mean there aren't other ways to avoid thinking about it though. Dib has to shut his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath while he buries everything deep down. He tells himself to focus on the things happening around him at the moment.    
  
He opens his eyes and sits up while reaching for his glasses. Once they're on his face and Dib can see again, he peers over to where Zim is sitting, ignoring the crack that’s still across the left lens. It's not like he wants to try and talk to Zim right now, considering he hates the jerk, but he can't just sit back here in silence for god knows how long. He doesn't even know how long he was asleep. It could've ranged from a couple hours to several. So he doesn't even know how much longer he'll have to be on this ship. He doesn't even really know where they're going, or how long it'll take to get there.   
  
Zim mentioned needing to get to his leaders, but does he even know where they are? If not, Dib really hopes he has a way of finding out since Zim also said his communications are down, so it's not like he can ask them. Maybe he's just going back to his home planet? His leaders could be there, and if they're not, plenty of other Irkens gotta know their location.    
  
Going to IRK would be the smartest thing for Zim to do, right? He should at least go there first to fix his voot cruiser properly or at least get one that maybe isn't so broken. But then again, how many times has Dib seen Zim make smart decisions? So he's really not expecting anything to go right as long as they're together because it never really has before. Everything has always just kind of minorly worked out for them.    
  
Dib adjusts himself to get on his knees so he doesn't have to scoot around the cockpit. He hobbles over next to the control panel, placing himself right at the end of it and crossing his arms to set them on the dashboard. He rests his chin on his forearm and stares out of the windshield, out to the vast galaxy filled with stars. He can see so much more out here than he ever could on Earth. Most of the times he's been out here, he was never able to just stop and look. It was always too hectic and he was too busy chasing Zim around.   
  
The stars have always been an escape for Dib. A way he could relax and clear his mind free from any intruding thoughts. Sometimes he would sit on his rooftop for what felt like hours, basking in the beauty of the night sky. Also wondering about all the things he hasn't seen out there yet. Thanks to Tak's ship that happened to crash right In his fucking backyard all those years ago, he's been able to go further than any other human. But he knows it was still only a small part, and there's so much more.   
  
Now that he's out here with Zim, and he doesn't really have a choice in the matter, Dib doesn't know what's going to happen or what he's going to see.    
  
Dib is quiet for a few seconds, not really knowing what to say. He glances over to see if Zim has acknowledged him at all. From what Dib can tell he hasn't, even though he has a rather vexed look on his face while staring straight out the window. He doesn't know if Zim has even noticed him at all, which is pretty unlikely considering Dib is fairly close and well past Zim's peripheral vision, or if he's just ignoring him. Maybe he just doesn't really have anything to say either.   
  
“So,” Dib starts off to get rid of the silence filling up the space between them. “Do you know where you're going?” He may as well mention it to know for sure if they’re actually on a set course to somewhere or if they’re just wandering in space until they happen to come across the Armada. Because that would literally take forever since space is kinda endless. 

“Of course I know where I’m going!” Zim snapped at Dib, his brow furrowed and antennae pointed downward. His tone of voice basically confirms his frustration and Dib can already tell that this isn’t going to be a fun conversation. Zim has always been hard to actually talk to so it’s not like he was expecting it to go much differently.

“Okay, geez,” Dib really isn’t in the mood to argue right now, so he may as well just accept what Zim says so that he doesn’t make him more agitated, even if he might not agree with or believe it. But he also really needs to know more of what’s going on. “I just want to make sure that you know where your leaders are, since, you know, you can’t exactly get in touch with them to ask.”

“Stop questioning me, Dib! I have everything figured out. I’ve kept track of The Tallests location for  _ years _ now!” He slams his fists on the console when emphasizing the word ‘years’ and is shouting like he always does. “If i’m quick enough, they should still be relatively close to where they were before I left Earth.”

Ok, so that makes Dib feel a little better. At least Zim is on the right path. How quickly is he able to get there, though? He knows that Irken technology is far more advanced and their ships can travel across space far faster than anything the humans have ever made. The voot cruiser is damaged though. Does that hinder the speed of it? Zim couldn’t have worked on fixing it more while Dib was asleep since he would’ve had to open the airlock. So he knows it’s basically in the same condition since Zim told him about it.

“What about the voot cruiser? Are you gonna finish repairing it?” Dib asks in a quiet voice.

Zim huffs in annoyance, “I don’t have  _ time _ for that.”

“But if the damage is causing it to go slower than it should be, wouldn’t you want to make sure it works right first so we can get there faster, and maybe not get stranded?” Dib hopes that Zim will listen to him this time, though it’s not very likely.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Everything has been perfectly  _ fine!” _ Zim folds his hands together and looks over to Dib with a condescending smile. “I know what i’m doing. Nothing went wrong the  _ entire _ time you were unconscious!”

“Okay, sure.” Dib says in a doubtful tone. He’s not really sure that he believes him. He really wants to, but Zim’s never been that trustworthy, and his tone of voice makes it sound like there’s something he’s not telling Dib. For now he’ll go with what Zim’s saying. But if something even small happens that makes Dib change his mind he’s going to make Zim go out there and fix it since he doesn’t have a suit to do it himself. If they’ve been going for this long then the ship can’t really be all that bad, though.

Speaking of, how long have they been out here? And where even are they right now? When Dib was looking out of the windshield he didn't recognize anything or even see any planets around. They at least have to be out of the Milky Way Galaxy at this point.

“Hey, where are we?” Dib asks. Zim is still looking at him, and now it’s that  _ look _ that he  _ always _ has on his face. If Zim had eyebrows, one of them would be raised and his bottom lip is jutting out just slightly.

Zim let's out a long droned out groan, slowly turning to face forward once again, “Well, we're not really anywhere specific right now. BUT, We should be entering the Andromeda Galaxy in a couple weeks, approximately.”

Dib’s eyes go wide and he sputters a bit before saying, “Weeks?! I ne - I can’t be in here that long! I need stuff like food and water! You know, the things that humans require to live?” He already feels like he’s dying from how much his stomach aches from not eating anything for far too long and being dehydrated has only made him more lightheaded and dizzy. Before, he was ignoring these things since he didn’t think he was going to be out here that long. But now he needs to actually do something about it.

“I  _ have _ food, Dib-stink.” Zim tells him, then turns the other way beginning to lean down, probably to get this food he’s talking about. The stupid nickname that Zim has always had for Dib also reminds him that he’s going to eventually need to shower. It’s a good thing that he took one fairly recently so he has some time to figure out how he’s gonna get clean. Just to be sure though that Zim didn’t call him that right now because he actually stinks he pulls the collar of his sweatshirt out and sticks his face down inside of it to sniff himself. There isn’t any body odor that he can make out, so it’s safe to say that he doesn’t smell bad, thankfully.

“What are you doing?” Zim asks, and Dib looks back up at him to see him holding a few small bags to his chest with a confused look on his face.

“Nothing.” Dib replies, letting go of his collar and straightening his sweatshirt out.

Zim shut his eyes for a moment and shakes his head with a pinched brow. When he opens them again he dumps all the bags that he has in front of Dib, “Here. This should suffice for your pathetic human needs.” He turns around for a second again, then comes back around with a red can that looks like it could be soda and sets it on the floor. Dib knows it’s not soda though because of the big Irken symbol covering the side of it. All of the bags have big Irken symbols on them too, and when Dib picks one up to see it closer, he sees some Irken writing on the front and back. He recognizes some of the letters but he can hardly read it, since he knows only a tiny sliver of the language.

At one point Dib had tried to learn how to read Irken. He figured it could be pretty useful instead of always having his computer translate it for him. Turns out learning it was way harder than he thought it would be, even for him. It would be easier if he had someone who spoke it and was  _ willing  _ to teach him. But Zim would never in a million years do that, since it would only make it more simple for Dib to read things that Zim doesn’t want him to know about. Whatever. Zim would be awful at teaching it anyways.

Dib opens up one of the bags and looks inside to see some kind of food that resembles chips. He reaches inside and pulls a single one out to begin examining it. It’s sort of a tan color with flakes of red strewn about on either side. If this is what he’s gonna have to eat then he wants to make sure there isn’t something in it that could make him sick. Since a lot of Earth’s food would make Zim sick and even seriously hurt him, like meat does, then maybe the same thing could happen to Dib if he tries Alien food? Now he’s a little scared to even try it, but he’s going to have to risk it. He doesn’t have anything else and he needs to eat something. And there’s no point in asking Zim about it, because how would he know if any of their food would cause harm to a human?

Before he tastes it, he brings the chip to his nose to sniff it. He can’t tell exactly what it smells like, but it’s not exactly _bad._ It has a pretty sweet scent, but not the same as the sweetness of candy. That’s a good sign at least, considering what food smells like has to do a lot with how it tastes to someone. Slowly he takes a small bite, enough to be able to tell if it’ll be good but little enough to not leave a bad taste in his mouth if it turns out disgusting.

The texture is sort of rough and is crispy when bitten into but once it settles on Dib’s tongue it quickly becomes softer and more chewy. This is the weirdest consistency change for food that Dib has ever experienced while eating something. As for the taste though, it’s a lot better than he expected. Once all of the sweet stuff it has been covered in has gone away the flavor isn’t as bold and is more bland but It’s still good and is nothing like he’s ever had before, and is definitely something that he could get used to. He instantly begins to stuff more into his mouth, because he’s fucking starving and he’s gonna take what he can get.

Now Dib has to try the drink that Zim got out for him, and he’s going to take the same precautions that he took while trying the chip things that now he’s sure are most certainly not chips. They’re still good though, and he’s already almost gone through the whole thing. But that’s not surprising, since the bag is quite small.

Dib picks up the can with his free hand that isn’t currently inside the bag and covered in the residue of the chip things. The top looks relatively similar to the opening of a soda can, and he realizes he’s probably going to need his other hand for this. Dib wipes his hand off on his jeans until most of the chip dust has come off, then pulls at the tab on the top of the can to pop it open. It has a sort of sweet smell to it also and even though he can’t really see into it, he can tell it’s carbonated from the fizzy sounds when he opened it. He takes a sip and lets the liquid sit on his tongue to get taste of it, smacking his lips together a few times. It’s extremely sugary but he can handle it for now. Even though it’s not water. And he still needs water.

“This isn’t water.” Dib says, holding the can up in front of him to show Zim what he’s referring to.

Zim eyes the can and then looks at Dib. “And?”

“Well I..need water. This is,” Dib looks at the drink in his hand and back up. “Some kind of alien soda. If anything it’ll make me  _ more _ thirsty.”

“Why would I have that  _ horrible _ liquid in my possession at  _ any _ time, ever?” Zim asks, staring at Dib with his antennae raised.

Dib sighs heavily, setting down the drink while shrugging. “Well, we gotta find some somehow, and preferably quickly. There’s has to be another planet around with it on it.”

“The closest planets are in the closest galaxy. Which we are headed to.” Zim tells him, gesturing out of the windshield in the direction they’ve been going.

“You don’t understand…I will  _ die _ ... _ long  _ before we get there, if I don’t have water.” Dib needs to get this in Zim’s head. He should really know this already, but maybe Zim just never cared enough to learn it. “You get me?”

“Of  _ course _ I understand.” Zim turns his body slightly away from Dib to where he can’t see his face anymore and has his hand on his forehead with his antennae pointed all the way down. Like what people usually look like when they’re stressed or thinking really hard. Which is a little weird because Dib should be the one who’s stressed out right now.

“Can’t you use your hyper speed to get there faster?” If even Zim’s hyper speed isn’t working because of the damage on the ship, Dib might just start panicking. Dying of thirst in space at the age of 17 isn’t exactly one of the ways that he wants to die.

Zim drops his hand and faces forward again. “Technically, yes I could, but I don’t -” He stops and looks over at Dib sideways.

Dib leans forward with his eyebrows raised, “Don’t what?” He asks, waiting for Zim to continue. He has a feeling that he knows what Zim is going to say.

He stares at Dib for a few seconds longer with his brow furrowed before taking a deep breath and responding, “I don’t want to risk hurting the cruiser more.”

Dib makes a little, “hm,” sound and nods his head slowly. “I thought you said that everything was fine with the voot.”

“I said that nothing  _ went _ wrong when you were passed out, you idiot. I know perfectly well what is wrong with this ship. It’s just that everything has been fine so far despite those issues.” Zim says while folding his hands together.

“Good,” Dib says, “Then we should be fine using the hyper speed.” He knows that using that could take a toll on the ship and make it worse. But he has no other choice, and he needs to convince Zim to use it at least once so they can get to some other planets quicker. Also, Dib can only hope that one of those planets has drinkable water on it. If he’s going to be in here a while, then he needs to stock up for long journey.

A slight irritated growl comes out of Zim. “ _ Stupid _ humans and their stupid pathetic human necessities.” He mutters to himself rather loudly while tapping the buttons on the console screen. “Another one of the reasons why it is clear who the superior species is.”

Dibs sighs, “Yeah whatever, you don’t need to explain it all to me again.” It’s one of the many things that Dib is used to when it comes to Zim. Like him always going on about the reasons why Irkens are so great, and then discovering a new “disgusting” thing humans do and repeating  _ again  _ and how  _ “Irkens don’t have to do this.”  _ or  _ “we would never stoop so low, so that’s why we’re better.” _ rant.

“You better hold onto something, Dib-worm.” Zim informs, but doesn’t even bother waiting before engaging the warp speed that has them suddenly taking off at an extremely high speed.

The force of it throws Dib’s body backwards and before he knows it he’s slammed against the back of the voot. The back of his head connects with the metal, leaving him in a daze for several seconds while he’s still pinned to the wall. Abruptly though, almost as soon as it started, the speed seems to have returned to normal and Dib is sitting on the floor, hanging his head with his eyes squeezed shut. It’s hard for him to breath normally, like no matter how hard he tries the breaths keep coming in shallow. The impact of how hard his back hit against the wall must’ve knocked the wind out of him. He inhales deeply a few times to return it back to normal.

It takes him a few seconds to for Dib to try and open his eyes, but when he finally lifts his head and does, everything is darker than he expected it to be. Dib is dizzy from the blow to his head, and it’s making his feel sick, so he shakes his head a few times to attempt to get rid of the feeling. It doesn’t really help, but throwing up is something he really doesn’t need to do right now.

Dib is now noticing a thin white light beginning to fill the cockpit of the voot cruiser, getting brighter and brighter with each passing second. Now that there’s light for him to see, he notices Zim poking his head out from the front of the pilot seat with a huge shit-eating grin on his face. Dib squints at him and is just about to ask what his problem is when Zim busts out in a fit of laughter. Dib’s face scrunches together in confusion, because what could possibly be so funny? It only lasts a second before the realization passes through him that Zim is very much laughing at him.

“You're such an asshole.” Dib says in a bitter tone, trying to ignore the loud howling laughter still coming from Zim. “Seriously, it’s not funny! I could’ve gotten a concussion or something!” Honestly, he’s seriously surprised he doesn’t have one already. Not even a minor one. Maybe he does though considering he doesn’t even remember how he got knocked out in the first place and brought on here. He has been feeling extra shitty physically lately and that could be a part of why.

Zim tones it down enough to say, “Oh, you  _ poor _ fragile creature.” He huffs out a few more small laughs but ultimately stops after that.

Dib rubs the back of his head where it still aches while he glares at Zim. The light that was filling the ship is even brighter now, causing Dib to squint. He tries looking out of the windshield to see the source of the light, but he can’t see anything except the blinding white. Where the heck is it coming from to be this bright? It seems like it’s coming from  _ everywhere _ . They’re not near a sun, because then the color would at least be a more yellowish-orange tone. And pretty warm.

Almost instantly the white light disappears and the stars are visible again, along with the sight of a fairly large planet.

“Woah,” Dib takes a moment to crawl his way back to the front so he can get a better view. “Did we just now get out of hyperspace?”

“Yes.”

Dib nods softly, mostly just to himself. “I thought -”

Zim cuts him off by shushing him rather loudly and holding up one of his fingers toward him. Dib looks at Zim’s little gloved hand that’s sitting in front of his face for a second before pushing it away to see why he interrupted him. He must be listening for something because he’s not doing anything else besides sitting there staring at one fixed area with his antennae straight up. Several seconds pass by, and Dib is about to ask what the heck this is all about when Zim finally moves again.

He lets out a big, “HA!” then taps a few buttons on the monitor. “I told you everything would be fine.” Zim claims, looking over at Dib with a smug smile across him face. 

Oh! he must be talking about the voot cruiser and how it didn’t get completely destroyed while in warp. “I’m the one that said that.” Dib pointlessly reminds him.Technically he didn’t even say that everything  _ would _ be fine, just that it  _ should  _ be. But even then he was trying to make himself believe something that might not have been true. Thankfully, everything  _ does _ seem fine. Though It doesn’t change the fact that the ship is still in horrible shape. “And the ship still needs to be fixed.”

“Look!” Zim gestures out the window with an open hand. “There’s a planet  _ right here.  _ We can stop by, you can gather some of your little food supplies, and while you’re doing that I can repair as  _ much _ as I can. And look, the  _ entire  _ planet is even covered in filthy water! Lucky for you.”

Dib looks down at the planet again, now noticing that the it does seem to be mostly covered in water. Everything visible on it is the color blue. He can only see a small part of it now that they’re pretty close, so there might be some land on it somewhere. But wait, if that’s entirely ocean water, then he won’t even be able to drink it. It is a completely different alien world though and he doesn’t actually know if it is drinkable or not. He may as well give it a try.

“Why does a planet even  _ need _ so much water, anyways? It’s a complete waste of space, not to mention useless!” Zim climbs out of the pilot seat, leaving the ship drifting toward the giant celestial body and opens a small compartment by the control panel, pulling out parts of his purple space suit and putting them on one by one. “I could mark this one down for potential invasion in the future when there’s another Operation Impending Doom. It would be quite useful if all the water could be drained from it somehow, since it’s so large.” He seems to be thinking out loud to himself. Dib kind of hopes that there’s nothing living on this planet now after he hears Zim saying all that, but it’s pretty unlikely. Maybe he could convince Zim to leave this planet alone somehow if there happens to be.

Dib is about to comment on Zim’s thoughts when the lights flicker a few times. Both of their heads snap up to look at the ceiling, listening closely to anything that could be causing power problems. It was probably being in warp speed that did that, and Dib knew that it was going to cause  _ some _ sort of problem. If they’re lucky, the issues are only minor ones until they can land somewhere safely. His eyes flick over to see Zim already watching him. They stare at each other for a few seconds in a sort of silent communication while Zim adjusts the small chest-plate that he attached to the rest of his suit.

 

 

Zim takes a step over to the compartment, leaning down for a second to reach into it and coming back up with a small cylinder that looks like a miniature gas tank. “Here, turn around.” He begins to walk over to where Dib is kneeling, not getting very far before the lights go completely out and he stops in his tracks. Even the lights on the monitor have gone out, which means that the entire ship has powered off.

“Uhm -” Dib gets cut off when suddenly they both tip and fall forward. He shouts out in pain as a bony part of his shoulder slams into the edge of the panel. He clutches his shoulder, trying to lift himself up so he’s able to see what is happening out of the windshield. It feels like the voot cruiser is falling and he can’t get in a good position to actually see anything. What he can see though is Zim struggling to get back into his seat. Everything is shaking too much get a good handle on anything. With enough effort though Dib is able to turn himself around and get back on his knees, hauling his body up to look outside.

They’ve already entered the atmosphere of the planet and are most certainly dropping downwards. Dib watches as the air blowing against the voot catches fire and he tries not to panic. He already tries thinking of ways to escape out of here once they are sinking. If they survive of course. But Dib pushes that thought out of dying out of his head. There’s not enough time  _ to  _ really think about anything clearly right now. There’s nothing he can do except hold on as he squeezes his eyes shut and braces for the impact against the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally added a drawing, yay! Follow my [Tumblr](http://www.softspacegays.tumblr.com/) to be sure when I update!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I was busy with finishing school but now that i'm done I can actually work on this stuff more.  
> Also I hope this chapter makes sense bc I mostly wrote it at like 4am, so forgive me for any confusing things or grammar/spelling errors!

Dib knows as soon as the voot cruiser crashes into the water. It’s extremely rough and the force throws his body forward, going stiff as his head and arm slam into the windshield while his lower half hits the dash and edge of the control panel. The next second he’s laying on the floor, clutching his body as all the pain that he’s experiencing runs through it. He stays there for several seconds, groaning and hissing through clenched teeth in a futile attempt to reduce all the throbbing aches. There’s too many spots to put pressure against with his hands, since he only has two of them, but squeezing himself as tightly as he possibly can seems to do the trick, if only for a very short amount of time.

The next thing he does is opens his eyes, only to find everything in his vision to be completely blurry. His glasses must have got knocked off when they made impact. Dib swears and forces himself to sit up, trying to ignore the pain that’s even more vivid as he does it. He can hear Zim shouting but isn’t listening since he can only pay attention to the panic going through him in the rush to find his glasses. Once he feels his hand run over them and immediately gets them on his face again he sighs in relief that they haven’t broke anymore than they already have been. Which is very surprising actually.

It’s kind of weird that the ship hasn’t started to fill with water yet. But considering this was built for space, then it’s probably sealed pretty well. Still, they can’t just stay in here. Dib looks to the front to see Zim kneeling on the monitor with one leg while the other is standing on the seat to support himself. He appears to be holding some sort of laser, and is already in the process of cutting a hole through the windshield while looking extremely concentrated. The laser is connected to a small rod that bends in a few areas leading into his pak. The rod reminds Dib of Zim’s pak legs for a second.

Just before he connects the line he’s been cutting to where he first started it, he pauses for only a moment, pushing a small button on his suit. A bubble forms around Zim’s head but quickly becomes invisible. It clicks in Dib’s head that, oh yeah, obviously he is going to need some sort of helmet to breath with too. He looks down and searches quickly with wide eyes around the cockpit for anything that could be there to use. Right as he remembers the small tank that Zim had in his hand before they begun to crash, he hears the area of the windshield that Zim cut around give way and the water come crashing inside.

Out of what seems to be pure luck, Dib spots the tank getting carried around by the water. It must have been on the other side of the seat where he couldn’t see anything. He dives forward in an attempt to grab onto it. Most of the voot is filled with water by now, so it slips out of his hands a few times but only just getting a hold on it when he feels what can only be Zim tugging on his shirt. Dib turns around to see Zim gesture with his head to follow him.

“Come with me or stay down here and drown!” Zim shouts over the rushing water at Dib, before going underneath.

With how much Zim is still tugging at Dib’s shirt, he thinks Zim isn’t actually going to let him choose the option to drown. His head is pushed against the ceiling to capture the last remaining air left since the water has just about completely filled the entire voot. Dib fills his lungs with a deep breath before completely submerging himself, holding onto his glasses with one hand to keep them in place as he goes under and the tank in the other hand. When he gets to the surface he’ll ask Zim what it’s about, and can only hope that it’s some sort of air tank. Also that the air on this planet is breathable for him, or he’s completely screwed.

He follows Zim out the hole he cut, just perfectly fitting through it. It doesn’t take as much time as he thought it was going to to break the surface, but still enough to make Dib start to feel uncomfortable with the breath he’s holding. Once they do Dib can’t help but inhale the air surrounding him. From what he can tell by doing that, it seems to be breathable, thankfully.

Dib holds up the tank as best as he can above the waves, and as soon as Zim sets his eyes on it, he grabs for it. “Give me that!” Zim takes it out of his hand more rough than is necessary and grabs onto Dib’s shoulder to spin him around. The sharp pull reminds him of the burning ache in his shoulder and the rest of his body. He grabs onto his arm but immediately lets go since he has to keep himself afloat with his arms just as well as his legs.

He feels Zim push the tank against his upper back and just at the base of his neck. The next thing he knows there’s a helmet forming quickly around his head, then sealing itself at the ring that is also now tightly fit around his throat. This must be one for emergencies or temporary use or else it wouldn’t be so uncomfortable just to wear.

When Dib turns back around to ask Zim about what the hell they’re going to do now, he only finds nothing except endless miles of an alien ocean. The only place Zim could’ve gone is down so Dib sticks his head underneath the water to look for him. It’s a good thing the small tank that he grabbed doubles as a helmet. Not only can he actually see underwater clearly now but he might be able to survive just long enough to figure out what to do.

He can also see Zim, and for some reason he looks to be making his way back to the sinking voot and back inside. What could he possibly be doing in there? He doesn’t seriously think that he can salvage it at all? Zim just needs to give it up and accept that the ship is garbage and a dead end. Dib’s surprised that he can still see it actually and it hasn’t gone past the cloud of darkness and into the depths that is God knows how fucking deep.

Just as Dib starts to panic a little bit by thinking about what kind of deadly alien creatures could be lurking in the black shadows just below him, a large figure catches his eye a ways to the left of where the voot cruiser is still sinking. It takes a moment for him to process what exactly he’s seeing, and when he does he reflexively jerks back and lets out a shout, then stares with wide eyes.

The being in front of his eyes is bigger than any living thing he has ever seen on Earth. Most of it’s face is long and flat, and slightly curved inward, visibly smooth surface, with it’s forehead flaring up and out into a plate with slight divots that could sort of look like a tall crown. He can see it’s long arms and legs that form into extremely long fingers, then turning to sharp claws with dark webbing between them. The rest of the body is colored different shades of grey’s, and most of its physique is thin and bony. More webbing stretches from the front of it’s thighs to the side of the belly. There’s a tail that is a little hard to make out the length of in the fogginess of the deep ocean.

Dib’s legs begin to kick into overdrive without him telling them to in an attempt to swim away. He doesn’t even know where he’d go to, just away from whatever that giant fucking monster is. But he’s already exhausted from how sore his body is so he knows he wouldn’t even get very far. Also there’s Zim he can’t forget about. Dib looks back to the voot and can see him swimming out of it carrying something shiny in his arms

He hopes that Zim will see the humongous sea creature coming seemingly coming straight for him, and book it up to the surface where he is so they can leave. Dib is almost about to attempt to get Zim’s attention for some reason, but a sharp movement of the giant makes him look over to it. It looks like it has gotten jerked back by something, which causes it to spin almost completely around. Dib watches as it’s extremely large tail, trailed with short but long spiky fins, swings downwards, realizing it’s going to actually hit the voot which is almost out of view at this point, and maybe even Zim.

Immediately Dib reacts by yelling out Zim’s name as loud as he can, even though he knows that it’s pointless and he won’t hear him at all from this distance. He hates to admit it, but if Zim dies then he will be absolutely screwed. There’s nothing Dib can do to help him, but his legs begin to kick on their own accord and he starts to move downward without him ever consciously making the decision to do so. He probably only gets about a foot though when Zim’s head snaps to the side, just having a second to realize what’s happening before the tail slams into the voot cruiser. It just barely misses Zim, but the force causes him to get thrown and flipped around violently for several feet.

Dib watches as Zim stops and shakes his head, probably to get rid of the dizziness that came from flailing around so hard, and then gather his bearings. Surprisingly he still has a grasp on the thing that he took from the cruiser, holding it tight to his body. His hand goes to his chest plate for a second before he quickly makes his way up to where Dib is much faster than he should be able to swim, especially since he doesn’t even have his arms free. But as he gets closer, Dib can see that he must’ve turned on the little jets on his back.

Also, he is shocked to see that the thing that Zim retrieved from the cruiser is his little evil robot minion thing, Gir. But he looks like he’s...Not working? Or turned off maybe? All Dib knows is that he isn’t glowing blue like usual and he looks pretty lifeless. Where the hell was he even stored that whole time in the ship. That little compartment that Zim kept his other stuff in, probably. He’s small enough to be put inside there.

There’s no time for Dib to ask about it, because when Zim reaches him he wraps one of his arms around Dib’s arm and pulls him along with him, not slowing down for even a second. He gets pulled for only about a minute or two before Zim stops though, deciding this is a good place and distance away from that thing. Though Dib thinks that absolutely _nowhere_ could be safe on this planet after seeing something like that living on here.

They go above the surface, and Dib looks to see if any scenery has changed at all and any land has come into view. It all just still looks the same, and he can’t help but feel a little disappointed even though they’ve barely gone any distance at all. That panicked feeling is bubbling up inside him again and all the wants to do is break down. He’s exhausted and has very little energy to keep swimming from how sore his body still is. Dib can feel tears begin to pool in his eyes while he fights back to keep from crying. It's embarrassing to cry in front of Zim, and he doesn't want to show any weakness that he might be feeling. It won't help their situation at all right now.

A sudden voice rings loud in Dib's ear that makes him flinch, and after a moment he realizes it's just Zim. He couldn’t understand what Zim said, and he doesn't really care either, but he sounds like he's coming from a speaker that's inside Dib's helmet. He must've turned on some kinda radio so they're able to actually talk to each other easily.

“This planet is nothing but a horrible lair of monsters!” Zim shouts into his microphone, causing Dib to cringe hard and makes him wish he could cover his ears.

“I really hope that isn’t true,” Dib says, now starting to feel sick to his stomach. “I would prefer to not get eaten by a giant sea alien anytime soon.” They’ve only seen one living thing here so far, so they don’t really know if everything here is as monstrous. Speaking of which what even happened with that? The creature left just as soon as it showed up, and Dib is surprised it didn’t try to attack them more now that he thinks about it. He remembers it appearing to weirdly get yanked down by it’s neck, but he doesn’t remember seeing anything around it’s neck to get pulled by?

What if there’s even bigger and intelligent beings living in this ocean keeping those things as pets? That could’ve been what kept that those things at bay? It’s kind of a more terrifying thought that Dib doesn’t want to think of. There’s more important things to be focused on, like thinking of a way to get off of this place.

Dib eyes flick down to Gir, still in the arms of Zim, and an idea pops into his head. It's kind of a dumb one, but it's the really the only thing that _might_ work. Even though it's really a stretch.

“Hey! Turn on your robot!” Dib tells Zim.

“What?” Zim asks, looking at Dib with furrowed brows.

“Your Gir robot! Can you turn him on?”

“Why would I do that? I don’t need him here to screw everything up!” Zim raises his voice and gestures around himself harshly.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Dib says in a low voice while he floats a little closer to Zim, “Everything already _has_ been screwed up!” He then shouts to get his point across and waves his hands quickly through the air.

“Well maybe it wouldn’t be if you hadn’t forced me to use my warp drive, therefore ruining the voot cruiser completely! This is your fault!” Zim yells, reaching out and jabbing one of his fingers into Dib’s chest.

“I didn’t force you to do anything and you know it!” Dib laughs in disbelief. “You’re the one that refused to fix the cruiser in the first place, so really this is your fault! You couldn’t take a few damn hours to repair it!”

“You’re lying!!”

“Just listen to my fucking plan, Zim!” Dib shouts impatiently.

“Why should I do _that_?” Zim huffs and turns his body away from Dib so that he doesn’t have to look at him. He’s holding Gir with one arm so he can help himself stay above the water with the other, waving it through the water.

“Maybe because I actually have one.” Dib states, “Do _you_?”

“Of course I do!” Zim replies, turning away from from Dib completely now.

Dib can’t see his face now, so he can’t use Zim’s expression as evidence to tell if he’s lying, but knowing him he most likely is. “What is it?”

Zim’s head quickly turns to the side to look at Dib from the corner of his eye, with his brows furrowed. “Uh, you go first.”

Dib rolls his eyes and sighs before explaining, “Okay, so, I know I don’t know a lot of what he can do,” he looks at Gir half emerged in the water and nods toward him, then up to the side of Zim’s face again who is still glaring at him. “But i’ve seen some things that he can do, and if you turn him on then he could maybe, I don’t know, use his jets to go get help, or a ship or something? I don’t know how fast he can go but it’s worth a shot.”

Zim turns around sharply. “Hey, that’s what I was thinking!” He sounds more like he’s accusing Dib of stealing his idea rather than agreeing with him. Which is impossible unless Dib could read minds. And he highly doubts that Zim was thinking the same thing. He just didn’t have any other plan and is trying to pass it off that he somehow had the same exact thing in mind.

“Do it then!” Dib urges him, moving forward attempting to grab Gir for himself because he doesn’t want to wait any longer than he needs to, but Zim jerks him back just out of Dib’s reach. “I don’t know how much longer I can go without some fucking water.” Reminding himself how dry his lips and throat are.

Zim face goes puzzled, his face scrunched together for a few seconds. “What are you talking about? There’s water all around us!” He looks around himself while holding a hand out to show what he’s talking about like Dib doesn’t know this already.

“This is saltwater, you moron!” Dib splashes around him a few times and then licks his lips, still able to taste the strong lingering flavor on them that hasn’t gone away. “I can’t drink this!”

“That’s so stupid! Can’t you try to?!”

“No, that’s disgusting.” Dib simply answers and leaves it at that, “Just get him on already and tell him what he has to do!”

Zim grumbles and begins to turn Gir around in order to activate him. Before he can actually do anything to him though, Dib hears loud splashing coming from his right and his head shoots around to see what caused the noise. Right as his eyes land on something emerging from the water, he can feel something push against the bottom of his boots making him look down to see what it could also be. The thing pushing against his boots continues to rise up, becoming visible and soon something that he’s able to sit on.

When it gets above the waves and is now floating on them, Dib quickly looks around what seems to be a large metal platform. A deep voice, loud and booming, interrupts and startles him. He jumps slightly and emits a small cry out from the sudden noise, snapping his head and eyes over and up to two very tall alien creatures pointing long spear like weapons at both him and Zim. Dib’s eyes only dart to him for a second, but he can see that Zim’s also sitting on the platform, staring up at the aliens with wide eyes, and Dib can assume he only looks the same.

Looking back at the being’s in front of him again he can see that they have almost no color to them, and actually seem to be faintly transparent around the torso and stomach area. Some parts though have a soft redish-pink hue, gaining more opacity at the hands, feet and face areas. The one closer to Dib is a lot thicker than the one in front of Zim, who is more thin and lean, and only has two arms unlike the thick one who has four.

Around their necks are some sort of puffy appendages, wrapping all the way around like some sort of padding with two thin lines of the same redish-pink color on each side of the front, symmetrical to each other. The thin lines are also on the sides of their waists and curving downwards. The thick one has two fins on the side of their head, like where ears would be, starting out short on the bottom but waving and getting longer at the tips. The lean one has a fin on their head too, except this one goes all the way around from both sides to the top and resembles a halo almost.

Their faces look smooth, round and are devoid of noses, instead having long gills running along the sides of their torso. The  Four deep black eyes glare at Dib two of the smaller ones placed diagonal to the larger front ones, and he looks over to see that the thin one glaring at Zim also has black eyes, but only two of them. It’s weird that they have such similar features but one has more of certain appendages, and Dib is a little confused on the evolutionary differences between them if they’re the same species.

On the sides of their calves they have similar fins, starting out short at the ankles and getting longer and waving until stopping at the knee and spreading out. Both of them have thick tails, also with one line of fin running along the top all along the tail that Dib can see, and also some webbing between the fingers and toes which form into long sharp claws.

“What is this?!” Zim asks, yelling it loudly.

The thick one shouts at them both in a language that Dib can’t understand, baring their sharp teeth and pointing the tip of the spear closer into his face. They sound like their demanding something from him with the their tone of voice.

“U-um, I-I don’t, I can’t understand what you’re saying.” Dib stutters, speaking quietly as to not to appear aggressive. They most likely don’t speak English, but Dib is more talking to them so he can show them that he’s calm and not here to cause anyone harm if that’s what they might think. He can’t say the same for Zim though and he looks over to him to give him a hard look.

Zim isn’t looking at him, instead looking up and scowling at the tall creatures in front of him, flicking his eyes back and forth between them. He looks like he’s going to explode in a fit any second and start screaming at them. It would probably end badly for them both if Zim did that, and it would only get worse since he can’t really control his temper.

“Zim, listen to me, you need to chill out.” Dib urges him, reaching one of his arms out to put a hand on Zim’s shoulder, then deciding against it, because that would be a little weird and probably aggravate him more. Dib looks at the aliens for a few seconds and then back at Zim. “Can you understand what they’re saying? Maybe they can help us.”

“Why would I know the language of these disgusting fish beasts?! Neither me or any of my species have ever been to this planet before!” Zim hisses.

“I dunno, you guys seem to know every other alien species in the fucking galaxy!” Dib whispers back harshly. Well that’s just great. Zim was basically their only chance to be able to talk to these guys and now that’s not an option. He still has to try somehow though.

One of the aliens slams the end of it’s spear onto the platform, erupting in a loud bang that startles Dib and Zim, making them flinch hard. Their heads snap back with wide eyes over to the two and sees the thin one holding onto the other with a hand on one of their arms, hissing sharply to them in a stern voice with the fin running along the top of it’s head back and mostly flattened. That one has a higher sound to them, but just as hard as the thick one.

The thin one releases the others arm and nods their head toward Dib. The thick one drops the spear and begins to stomp over to him while reaching for it’s side with it’s bottom left arm, bringing it back up a moment later with something black and shiny that he can’t quite make out before he starts to panic. He jumps back in reflex, his back hitting against something. He turns around to see what he ran into but there’s nothing in sight, but he can see he’s on the edge of the platform. There must be a invisible barrier to keep them from jumping off and escaping.

Dib can hear Zim begin to yell loudly through the radio. He can see the thin one attempting to restrain him with another one the same shiny black objects that he can only guess is some sort of handcuffs, knocking Gir out of his arms to get him out of their way. There’s only a second to watch before the thick alien roughly grabs onto Dib with three of it’s large hands. When they get him up the bottom hand releases Dib and instead grips both of his wrists, holding them together and slapping the handcuffs around them. They enclose his hands completely, but the size of them leaves more than enough room to wiggle his fingers around inside once locked tightly since they weren’t made for humans.

“Release me, you slimy fish monster! You are all going to get what’s coming to you when I report this useless planet to the Tallest!” Zim threatens them uselessly, trying to display his ‘superiority’ when they can’t understand him anyways. “I AM ZIM!”

“Zim, shut up! You’re only gonna make things worse!” Dib squeezes his eyes shut while saying at Zim’s obnoxious shrieking piercing his ear drums. He hopes that the aliens will at least take it easy on him if he cooperates in everything they direct him to do.

The platform suddenly begins to move, not going back down but instead going forward. Or at least what Dib thinks is forward. They travel above the waves for a few minutes, Dib staring ahead at the water while he can hear Zim struggling and grunting the whole time. Probably trying to break out of his restraints.

When the platform comes to a hard stop, Dib has to take a step forward to avoid falling over. He straightens himself and scans the area they were brought to and coming up confused when he doesn’t see anything around. Just as he looks up to the tall alien still holding onto him, the platform shifts and begins to move downwards.

Dib has a moment of panic, irrationally thinking that maybe he and Zim are going to be fed to the enormous monster that they fled from earlier. He can’t remember which way that thing was. He lost all sense of direction since every which way looks exactly the same, and nothing to indicate where they’ve been. Not even any kind of reef. Just deep waters that seem to go down forever because it’s so dark.

When they all become submerged under the ocean, Dib’s fear goes away and is replaced by complete and utter astonishment.

Below them is a large city, beautiful and hidden inside an tremendously large cavern. The distance makes it a little hard for Dib to clearly make out any of the details, but he first notices a tall building at the far end of it sitting against the rocky wall, towering over every other structure surrounding it. On each side of the building there is an enormous sized tunnel inclining upwards with the light of day shining through over the city. Dib looks up at the not quite as big, but still pretty large, entrance they came through at the top of the cavern.

Dib hears Zim grunt again and he glances over to see him jump up to grab a hold of Gir through his arms between where his hands are cuffed before he floats away, then getting pulled back down by the thin alien just as he does it. But right now Dib doesn’t really care much about anything other than the alien civilization in front of his eyes, so he directs his focus to that again.

The buildings make him think that this place is incredibly ancient, yet at the same time reminding him of something futuristic. He can notice that the tallest one at the far end has a jaggedy triangular look to it, but split down the middle like the opening to a trench almost. There are some other tall structures, but still pretty small compared to the main one at the end , that are placed in specific areas and have a dome like shape to them and sticking out the top are three sharp, metal looking pieces, coming together in a point at the top. Like a pyramid but with only three corners.

The rest of the city reminds Dib of cities just as the sun goes down. When there’s some sort of light from the sun left, but all the lights are turned on, preparing for the darkness on the night. He doesn’t know what time of day it is here, or even how long the day’s last, but even though there’s a good amount of light shining in, everything is glowing anyways. From all the buildings, to the large and small pillars placed throughout everywhere, it’s all in a calm blue atmosphere.

As the platform keeps descending and they get even closer, Dib can make out a little more detail. Everything is pretty geometrically shaped and intricately designed, with teardrop like symbols, except more sharp in the execution of how it looks and with another smaller more rounded one inside.

There’s a large bridge leading up to the trench like building, splitting into two and connecting to the bottom of each one where the main entrances probably are. The widest part of the bridge slopes down to the seafloor to what looks like could be a plaza with circular designs in the ground shining with luminous colors.  Tall glowing blue pillars are set at the beginning of the bridge, forming into a large silver arch.

A small sigh of wonder escapes Dib’s lips, “This is amazing.” He whispers to himself in disbelief that he’s actually seeing something this cool.

“Phht, It’s not that extraordinary.” Zim huffs, and Dib ignores him, not letting him ruin this experience for him.

Eventually when they make it down to the bottom, the platform doesn’t stop in front of any of the buildings. Instead it stops above a large dome like building that makes Dib think of a turtle shell, with one of the many curved plates on top of it opening up, just big enough for the platform to fit through. It’s surprisingly dark inside, only lit up by soft bio-luminescent glows from the corals lining the walls in the small room they’re in.

Dib isn’t expecting the platform to keep descending, but it continues to go down through a square shaft for several more seconds. Now that he can’t see the city anymore, it kind of comes back to him that, oh yeah, he and Zim have kind of been detained and now he has no idea what’s going to happen next. A bunch of thoughts run through his head of the possible ways he can try and communicate with these aliens. There has to be some way of making them understand their situation.

Dib looks up and over his shoulder to the tall thick one that still has a tight grip on his arms and shoulders with three of their hands, the last one holding onto the spear it dropped earlier. His eyes go wide when he realizes that they’re actually glowing a deep red color with cool dotted patterns throughout their body, and his eyes dart over to the other one to see that it’s the same way. These creatures must be bio-luminescent themselves, and that’s why there’s not a lot of light around. They can probably see pretty well with their own natural body light.

The platform comes to a stop and tall, wide, cloudy like doors slide open in front of them. The big hands holding onto Dib give him a push, making him float forward a bit. He hears Zim grunt from also getting pushed, and Dib can see Zim float into his peripheral vision. It's a little hard to actually walk on the floor when he's in water, but the alien holds him down again and the weight makes it a little easier.

They keep going down a long corridor, tall and with many large frosted windows stacked on each other. There's small pillars just outside each of the rooms with a glowing blue octahedron shape on top every one, which provides the small amount of light around them along with the aliens behind them.

They get stopped in front of one of the rooms and Dib wants to ask what this place is, but he knows he won't get an answer that he can understand. He notices Zim move next to him and looks over to see the thin alien pass him over to the one holding onto Dib, who releases his arm and uses it to grab onto Zim's tiny one.

Dib watches the thin one float over to the pillar beside the entrance of the room and move their long fingers over the glowing octahedron. As soon after they do it, the frosted window opens up from the middle horizontally, and past it is a small, grey, cubic room.

The thin alien comes back over to Dib and Zim, first taking off the cuffs around Dib’s hands by inserting a small key into the lock by the base of it, and moving on to do the same to Zim. Dib runs his hands together a few times while watching the cuffs get taken off of Zim, who is still holding Gir between his arms. And Dib wants to warn him not to do anything stupid once his hands are free.

Before Dib can even wonder what is going on, he and Zim suddenly get shoved inside. Dib looks back just in time to watch the doors close back up and he swims over to it, pressing his hands against the surface of it.

“Hey, wait!” Dib calls out for some stupid reason. By now he's guessed that this is some sort of jail cell, and those aliens must’ve been law enforcement of some kind so it's perfectly understandable that this is where they'd be taken to. But he doesn't know how long they'll be waiting. Or what will happen at the end of the wait. He knows absolutely nothing about these aliens, so they could straight up kill him and Zim for reasons unbeknownst to either of them. But, if they were really going to do that, Dib thinks, then he feels like they would've as soon as they first found them.  

“This is outrageous! Who do they think I am?!” Zim bursts out, dropping Gir to float to the floor and coming over to the door himself and banging on it with his fists.

“They have no idea who you are! They’re not gonna cater to you just because you think you’re better than everyone else, Zim!” Dib says, turning around to study the cell they’ve been put in.

“That’s ridiculous.” Zim claims. Dib watches him reach behind him to open up his pak, pulling out the same laser gun that he used on the windshield of the cruiser. He begins to use it on the door, and Dib reacts by grabbing Zim by the shoulder to pull him back.

“What are you doing?!” Dib asks in a hard voice.

“I’m getting us out of here!” Zim hisses back in reply.

“What are you gonna do then, huh? Because I won’t go with you, and you’d get caught! Did you see how big this place is?!” Dib asks.

“I’d figure it out!” Zim replies, “Why do you have to be so difficult?!”

“Just stay here!” Dib insists, raising his eyebrows. “They have some sort of technology, maybe they can help us. Or maybe we can build another small ship with what they have if we can convince them to let us somehow. But if you break out of here, they’re not gonna trust you and will probably kill you!”

Zim stares at Dib for a few seconds, looking conflicted. He then huffs and turns away from the door, putting the laser gun back into his pak. Dib sighs in relief and watches Zim drift to the floor and cross his arms, sulking because he has to wait instead of being able to make an escape. Dib slowly floats down to the floor himself, leaning against the wall on the other side of Zim.

As they both sit there in silence, Dib can’t help but feel worried about what might happen. Just because he seems confident on the outside that everything will be fine, inside he’s freaking out. He can feel his heart pounding against his ribs faster than what it should be from just sitting here. Dib closes his eyes and breaths in and out deeply, just focusing on that. Repeating it until he can feel himself calm down a bit.

It works after a couple minutes, and Dib opens his eyes. He looks over to Zim who’s sitting with his legs crossed, an arm propped on one of his knees and resting his head on his hand that’s against the invisible helmet instead of his face. A strange layer of calmness washes over Dib as he watches Zim, feeling a little thankful that he’s not alone in this. And he hopes this feeling will remain for the time being so he’s able to think rationally when it matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate the comments you guys leave, and even if I don't respond to all of them, because I don't want to clog up the comments section, I do read them all! And I really appreciate the kudos too :) It all fuels me to keep this going.
> 
> Also shout out to my friend [Chaildlike](http://www.chaildlike.tumblr.com//). She designed the aliens I came up with for me, and she's an amazing artist!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so dang long to get up, I had bad writers block and didn't do anything to help it by just drawing 24/7. But by getting this chapter done i'm more motivated and eager to keep it going! I promise lol

Since Dib has no way of keeping track of time, not like it even matters anymore, he has no idea how much time has passed so far. He hasn’t moved from the spot that he’s been in, his mind sort of phasing in and out every so often. Thinking about all the possible things that could happen in this situation. Going over what the mannerisms of those aliens were like to maybe guess how more of them could be. 

Of course that doesn’t really say what the rest of them could be like, for those two seemed to be more official. They are most likely some type of police, since they brought Dib and Zim to this weird jail, and police officers tend to act more hard. But that’s only for humans, and this is an entirely different species living a completely different way of life. It would make sense if the aliens here have a completely different way of acting than how things were on Earth.

They wouldn't just kill Dib and Zim though, without even trying to question them first. So they have a chance at least to reason with them, and get their help. Well, maybe Dib should do it, since he could communicate better, and not make them angry unlike Zim would.

Dib's eyes flick up to Zim sitting across the room, who is leaning against the door. One of his arms is raised and he's tracing random patterns on the foggy glass of the door with his finger while he stares blankly at it.

“Hey,” Dib says to get Zim’s attention.

Zim continues to sit there, still staring at the tip of his finger still running along the door. Dib waits a few seconds to see if Zim is just responding slowly, but when he just continues to make no reaction, Dib calls out to him again.

“Hey, Zim!” Dib raises his voice a little bit this time to make sure Zim hears him. This time Zim drops his arm and slowly turns his head to glare at Dib.

“What?” Zim answers

“When they take us out of here to, wherever,” Dib waves a hand around, “you should really let me do the talking, or, whatever it'll be when we communicate with them.”

Zim’s face scrunches up and he scoffs at Dib's words. “And why should I do that? Clearly I am much more persuasive than you are.” Zim folds his arms together and stares at Dib with a brow raised.

Dib makes an exaggerated face of confusion, “Since _ when?!” _ He asks, his voice in a higher pitch than usual.

“Well,  _ hmm _ let me think,” Zim grabs his chin and pretends to think really hard for a second, “Oh, since always!” He shrugs and looks back at Dib with a condescending smile.

Dib scowls at Zim for a few moments, “Only because people are stupid.” He admits, looking away and setting his face against his hand. But he quickly sits straight up again to argue some more. “No, but really, let me do the talking.” Dib might be scared, understandably, but he has a lot confidence that he will be able to convince these aliens easier than Zim would ever be able to. Zim's stupid tricks might have worked on humans, but Dib doubts that they could work on every species. Especially one they know nothing about.

Zim squints at him, seeming to be deciding on whether or not to listen to Dib. “We’ll see.” Is all he says.

Whatever. That's good enough for Dib right now.

He sighs heavily and reaches up to rub at his face, only for his hand to hit the helmet surrounding his head. Oh yeah. Dib hopes that he won't have to be wearing this thing much longer. It's a little uncomfortable and is still tight around his neck. It was probably made to be worn for a short period of time, and that's why the oxygen tank is so small. Speaking of which, Dib has no clue how long it lasts and it's most likely been a good hour or two since it was put on him.

“Do you know how long this oxygen tank lasts?” Dib asks, pointing to the back of his neck where the tank sits.

Zim shrugs, “A couple of hours.”

Dib sighs again, “Great, now I'm gonna suffocate and die in a jail cell on an alien planet with  _ you. _ ” He says with a hint of disgust in his voice.

“What's that supposed to mean?! You disgusting -” Zim gets to his feet as quickly as he can with all the water surrounding him and then gestures to himself. “Remember that this isn't my fault we're stuck here! If you're so bent on possibly dying in a jail cell next to me, blame yourself.” He spits out, pointing at Dib.

Dib chuckles quietly and lowers his head, looking away. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.” He says softly under his breath, not meaning for Zim to hear him.

“I will, thank you, because it’s true.” Zim replies, making his way over to the door.

Dib rolls his eyes at Zim and shakes his head. He forgot that Zim can hear everything he says, even if it’s a whisper since they’re talking through the microphones connected in their helmets. He’ll have to remember not to talk to himself while he has it on, since that's one of his habits. But he hasn't been doing it a lot lately, which Is a little surprising for himself. Maybe nothing that he's thought about has been worth saying out loud really, since talking to himself can sometimes help him think better. Dib feels like he's just been kind of empty. Hollow on the inside and in his head. Not having a lot of stuff to think about, or maybe in the times where he is thinking a lot, there's too much going on to bother thinking out loud.

A muffled banging noise gets Dib's attention and his head whips up to see, hoping it's the aliens finally coming to open the door and take him and Zim out of here. All he sees though is Zim banging on the door with his small fists.

“What are you doing, Zim?” Dib asks him.

Zim gives the door a few more hits before replying, “I am  _ sick _ of sitting here and waiting, and if I can't escape this dirty box, then I am going to make them take me out of it.” Zim continues to bang on the foggy glass of the door, grunting with each pound to it.

“What makes you think they’re going to hear you?” Dib asks, gesturing to the door with his hand. “You saw that this place is underground, and it didn’t look like there was anyone else around.”  

“I’ll figure it out, there has to be some way that they can hear me.” Zim stops bashing on the door, seeming to think about what to do, only to start up again after a few seconds. Only this time he’s started to yell along with it.

Dib’s face cringes at the loud screaming now in his ears. He really doesn’t want to join in with Zim, but he feels like he may not have a choice. The air in his helmet is probably going to run out soon, and it already feels like the oxygen is starting to get thinner. Or maybe that’s just his imagination and he’s starting to panic. Either way he’s kind of sick of sitting in here too, and they really need to get things going already.

Oh, well. At least trying won’t hurt anything. He hopes. He doesn’t want to make them angry or anything.

Well now he's having second thoughts. He doesn't want to risk getting in a bad place with these aliens. But when he thinks about it, they both probably already are.

While Dib is sitting there thinking hard about whether or not he should help, he sees two large shadows swim in front of their door and come to a halt. This has to be the two aliens that took Zim and Dib here! Wow, did Zim's shouting and banging actually work? It had to just be a coincidence really. It seems like it would be impossible for anyone to hear them down here.

Dib quickly shoves himself to his feet, preparing for whatever they’re here for. Zim is still pounding away at the door, either because he has his eyes closed and doesn't see the figures, or he just doesn't care. It could be either one really, so it's hard to tell. Dib is just about to move forward to pull Zim back and away from the door when it comes sliding open and the two aliens that brought them here enter into the cell, the soft red glow from their bodies emanating all around them.

Zim moves back at this and looks behind him for a moment, but not at Dib. He waves his arms and keeps floating backwards until he gets to Gir, who's been lying there, still in a dead sort of state. Zim picks him up hugs him to his chest, eyeing the two aliens wearily as to warn them to not take Gir away from him.

Dib’s eyes go back to the aliens and can see that they’re holding the same handcuffs that Dib and Zim were wearing earlier. Of course they were going to have to wear them again, he’s just thankful that they’re not super tight and uncomfortable around the wrist. It does suck a little bit to not have his hands free though at all and that they have to be covered. Dib holds his hands out, already complying with the aliens before they have to force him to do it. The thicker one with the four arms comes over to Dib and grabs Dib’s forearms with their bottom set of hands more roughly than needed and secures the handcuffs on Dib’s wrists.

When they start to pull Dib to bring him out of the cell, Dib looks back to Zim just to see if he’s giving the other alien any trouble. He sees Zim back up a little bit as the two armed alien approaches, reaching out to put the handcuffs on him. Dib can tell how unhappy Zim is with the bitter expression on his face as the alien grabs him with one hand by his forearm to prevent him from backing up anymore. It's not like Zim’s got anywhere to go though, so Dib doesn't know why he just doesn't stay still.

The thinner alien that has Zim locks the handcuffs in place, with Gir being held between Zim's arms awkwardly. He gets pulled out of the cell next to Dib and they start to get lead to the elevator type thing they entered here from.

“Hey, where are you taking us? I demand to know!” Zim says firmly, looking up at two aliens pushing them along with his brow furrowed.

“Zim!” Dib whispers harshly.

“ _ What?! _ ” Zim says just as harshly, but doesn't whisper. “I've cooperated with them thus far, I think I deserve to know what they're going to do with me. Well, us.” He gestures to Dib and then himself.

“You  _ idiot! _ You know they can't understand what you're saying! And we're just gonna find out soon anyways!” Dib is still whispering for some reason, even though he knows there's not really a point. He probably just doesn't want to be too loud.

They come to a stop in front of the door of the elevator and the large door slides open. The aliens push them onto it and then follow to swim around behind them again. “Who knows? Maybe they've just been pretending and can full well understand every word we speak.” Zim says, looking over his shoulder slightly to the aliens towering over him, the area between his eyes wrinkling like a nose would if he had one.

The door closes and the platform begins to move upwards. “I highly doubt that. Why would they be able to speak English? I don’t think they’ve exactly been to Earth.” Dib says, pausing for a few seconds, then adding, “It wouldn’t make any sense.”

All Zim does is shrug while making a low, “I don’t know.” sound.

Dib stares at the wall in front of him, watching it disappear underneath the platform as it keeps moving upwards. They make it to the top and the platform comes to a stop. Dib feels the thick alien behind him lay a hand on his right shoulder and he turns his head to look at it and then up at their face. They don’t look down at Dib and only continue to stare forwards. Dib starts to get pushed along when his eyes go over to the alien who is holding Zim by the shoulder now too, also pushing him along. They've both been weirdly nonverbal since Zim and Dib were brought down here.

“You know, it's kind of weird how they haven't said anything since they took us down here. Not even to each other.” Dib mentions, facing his head front wards. “Well I guess it could make sense since we are underwater, and speaking clearly would be difficult. But they have to talk to each other in some way. Maybe in whistles? Like dolphins? No I feel like we would've heard something like that by now if that's what it was. But they can speak verbally, we heard that above the water.” Dib continues to say, not even really talking to Zim anymore. They've passed through the small dome building with the glowing coral lining the walls and out into the city.

The light from the outside, still shining through the ginormous tunnels of the cavern, bring Dib out of his thoughts and cause him to squint. Even though it’s not incredibly bright, it still seems like it to Dib for a few seconds, but his eyes adjust to it all right away. It was pretty dark down there, the only light source being from the bio-luminescent corals and the glowing blue pillars outside the cells that shined through the foggy glass of the door.

Now that Dib is viewing all the architecture from the ground he can’t help but be mesmerized by it again. He looks at all the different types of buildings as he gets pushed along, wondering which each one is for. Which ones are the homes of other aliens that live here. He wonders what their lives are like and how a normal day goes. How he probably won’t find out. As much as he’d love to learn about these aliens and their civilization, he doesn’t have the time. If things go well and Zim and Dib get help, Zim is going to want to leave as soon as possible.

Where are all the other aliens anyways? In a city this big Dib would think that there’d be hundreds of them out and about, doing whatever it is they usually do. But he hasn’t seen any so far, except for the two that is behind Zim and Dib right now. It’s a little eerie, seeing such a big place so empty and quiet.

Dib swallows hard down his dry throat, feeling a little sense of unease as they pass underneath the giant arch at the start of the bridge. He feels a little bit like he's being led to his execution and he sure hopes that's not what it is. Dib's heart starts to beat a little faster against his chest as they get closer to the enormous trench-like building that has to be where some kind of leader resides in. It towers above everything else and just looks pretty intimidating in itself, so it would make a lot of sense.

They bank off on the path to the right leading up to one of the entrances. The door is very tall, looking like it could be about 20 feet high, and rounded on the top. Above it Dib can see the same teardrop shaped symbol that he saw on other structures while above the city. It must be their symbol to represent them, maybe. Like how on Earth each country had a different flag. Dib wonders how many different civilizations there are of these aliens on this planet. How many different types there are, if it gets pretty diverse or not. Or if they all generally live the same way with the same culture.

That small thought gets brushed away once the door splits open from the top to the bottom down the middle and slides open smoothly. Inside, massive blue pillars line the hall with a soft blue glow emanating from inside, just like the much more smaller ones that are scattered throughout the city. Dib's eyes follow one of the pillars all the way to the top of it where it holds the ceiling. But the end of it looks flared out, like it got peeled and curled. All the other ones appear to be the same way too. The halls are nothing but silvers and greys, but with intricate designs carved everywhere all dotted and swirled about, shining and twinkling like the stars Dib used to watch every night. It reminds Dib of the glowing dots on the aliens bodies also, and he looks back to the thinner one pushing Zim along to compare. They have a similar general pattern to them, but not exactly the same.

Dib is turned left all of a sudden, and he turns his head forward to see another door, just the same as the entrance one but not quite as tall. It slides open just the same and in this room is definitely not what Dib was expecting to see. Well, he doesn't even know what he was expecting but he knows it wasn't close to this.

In this room there's actually more of the aliens who are standing in an orderly line on the other side, holding the same type of spear that the two holding Dib and Zim had earlier. They're facing towards the door the two aliens brought them through and are posing at attention, hardly seeming to move. Some of them are the four armed thicker type, others are the kind with only two arms, more lean and thin. Now Dib also knows that not all of these creatures have a red glow, and come in other colors as well.

They make it out onto the path in the middle, and Dib stares down into it in wonder. At all the different sized circles placed underneath the glass and all the colors glowing and swirling around inside. His eyes follow the lights up the path as they dance all the way to the end. He doesn't even notice he has a tiny smile on his face until his eyes dart up and he can feel it quickly disappear as his eyes grow wide.

He doesn't even know how to comprehend what he's seeing right in front of him.

Sitting in the middle of a wide open area, on a dark chrome floor, is only what Dib can resemble as a throne. A very big, intricate throne. Large blade like objects protrude out from the back of it, two of them at the top tilting together and touching at the tips, forming a triangle shape. The silver arm rests curve out dramatically and are a lot bigger than really seem necessary.

Lastly, there is a being placed on the throne who is very ethereal like, and Dib can only stare in pure astonishment. They are the same species as the other aliens Dib has seen, and is one with only two arms. What makes this one stand out from all the other ones though, is the large jellyfish type creature sitting on their head with flowing tendrils swaying about calmly in the water. It glows brightest than anything else in the room and obviously has a significant amount of importance to it, and Dib can only guess that the one who wears it is one of the most important figures in this society. It reminds him a little bit of a queen. He doesn't know if the jellyfish is alive or not, or if it just might be a recreation of one for an accessory.

Dib and Zim finally get halted to a stop at the beginning of the slope leading up to the throne. It's completely dead silent and super weird that no one is saying anything at all. Should they bow? Or something like that? He doesn't exactly know how one addresses royalty, if that is what this is, on this different planet. But it's not like Zim would do it anyways. He hesitantly starts to lower himself down just in case, but before he can get very far he freezes when the alien on the throne pushes itself off of it and floats up to stand on the floor, tail swishing around behind them.Wow this one is tall. And one that glows blue instead of red. The color blue sure does seem to be a main theme around this place.

“Uh, we-” Dib begins to say, not exactly sure where he is going to go with the sentence, or why he's even bothering speaking English at all.

“I am IRKEN Invader ZIM and this pathetic meat sack is Dib! You are going to help us leave this disgusting water planet, or face the wrath of the Irken empire!” Zim demands forcefully.

Dib closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, thankful that they cannot understand what Zim is saying. But can still probably understand Zim's attitude problem with his tone of voice.

Dib opens his eyes again to look at this queen type figure staring at Zim with their deep black eyes. They're not making any type of facial expression, and it's a little creepy to say the least. He feels a little awkward, just waiting for something to happen. Someone has to initiate an actual conversation that doesn’t involve Zim being himself and if it has to be Dib then so be it. He opens his mouth to attempt to speak again, and the action causes the alien's eyes to watch him instead. The black eyes make it a little difficult to tell where they're looking exactly, but the subtle shift of the head when Dib moved told him that they're staring at him now, and he feels highly intimidated.

Dib thinks about any type of way he can talk to them, or what he would even say. His mouth is hanging open and he's waiting for words to come out. But nothing does and Dib starts to feel scared again. What if there’s no way they can communicate successfully? This is their only hope and if it doesn't work out Zim and Dib are basically doomed.

“Are you listening to me?! I  _ said-”  _ Zim starts.

“Zim, shut up! They don't know what you're saying remember? Your efforts are pointless!” Dib whispers harshly to get Zim to be quiet, not even looking at him.

“I'll shut up when they bother to say anything at all!” Zim responds, not saying anything further despite what he just stated. Zim would probably have his arms crossed right now if he could, and Dib is picturing Zim's angry face where he sticks his bottom lip out in a pout.

A little spark of anger lights up inside of Dib at Zim for getting them into this mess. He wants to yell at Zim and blame him for everything that's happened so far, but he knows he can't. At least not right now. Dib can't lose his temper and ruin their chances of getting help.

The alien turns their head to look slightly behind them to their right, all of the tendrils of the enormous Jellyfish flowing with the motion. Dib's eyes flick over to what they're looking at and he sees another alien that he didn't notice before, one of the four armed ones, standing next to the throne with all their hands clasped together, glowing orange. They're watching the queen type alien with all four eyes, as if their listening intently even though no speaking is occurring. For a moment their facial expression turns to a look of worry, and the hands of their top arms unlatch and one goes to hesitantly reach out for the other alien. The queen type alien nods their head slightly and the four armed one reciprocates, clasping their top hands together again while facing forward. The queen type alien then turns their head back to face Zim and Dib.

Dib is pretty damn confused at this point, and just wishes he could ask what that was all about. Do they just have some kind of silent communication? Or do those two known each other so well that they can tell what they're saying by just a look?

Dib can feel a sudden pressure start in his head, like the beginning of a headache. He's not really surprised that he's probably getting one again, since he's still extremely dehydrated. But he is surprised he hasn't passed out yet actually and he feels like he's pretty close to getting there. The pressure in his head keeps building, and there's a flare of pain that keeps pushing hard against his temples. He squeezes his eyes shut from how much it actually hurts, hoping it doesn't last long. Having a migraine would just amplify how bad this day has been by ten times.

But then the pain is gone, leaving just as quick as it came and there's a flood of something Dib can't even understand at first. His eyes open wide and he stares at the ground while trying to figure out what’s happening inside his head. It takes him a second to realize that there's a wave of curiosity spreading throughout his mind, except.. It's not  _ his. _ At least he's pretty sure it isn't.

Then next thing he knows there's  _ words _ covering Dib’s thoughts. Ones that he doesn’t recognize since they’re not English, or any other language he’s ever heard.

His head snaps up, meeting eyes with the ethereal alien standing at the throne, and he realizes that  _ this _ is how they communicate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all the explaining isn't getting too tedious! Once again pls forgive any spelling/grammar errors. I don't exactly have a beta reader and tend to just upload these after I get done with them. Kudos and/or comments highly appreciated! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again sorry this took so long! I've been in a big writing mood lately so I should be getting more of this done faster.

Dib first realizes that it's a  _ lot _ to have someone else's emotions inside his head. Dealing with his own is enough, but now it's like his head is overflowing and it's hard to keep track of which feelings are his own at first. He can just  _ feel _ the curiosity to full extent, the alien poking around in his brain, and it's a little scary. 

Can the alien also feel Dib's emotions? The slight fear that festers inside of him as he waits, not knowing what's going to happen still? He doesn't want this being to know that he's scared. It could be like when an animal can sense a human's fear, it's not a good thing. They could be able to take advantage of it and use it to break him down. He needs to convince them and himself that he's confident with speaking to these people. And, not that he's trying to reduce them down to animals, they're obviously intelligent beings.

Wait, what if they can also read Dib's mind? Have they been able to see everything Dib has been thinking thus far? He thinks in English words though, so he doesn't think that they'd be able to understand his thoughts anyways. Just like Dib couldn't understand the foreign words that were sent into his head. He still feels like he needs to be weary of what he's thinking though. He doesn't want to end up thinking the wrong thing.

It sounds a little ridiculous that Dib doesn't want to  _ think _ the wrong thing. Because now there's someone else inside his head, and it's like he doesn't have any more privacy whatsoever. Dib's private thoughts are only supposed to be heard by himself, and no one else.

He doesn't really have a choice though. This seems to be the only way they're able to communicate.

Stupidly though, Dib opens his mouth on reaction by attempting to say something, “Uh-uhm.” Is all he gets out before he squeezes his eyes shut and shakes his head slightly, scolding himself to try not to do it again since he damn well  _ knows _ that speaking verbally is useless in this situation.

Suddenly another feeling washes through him, except this time it's confusion and his eyes open and dart back up to the alien in front of him. Their brows are lowered and their head is tilted slightly, and it was probably because of awkward words Dib stuttered out.

The confusion doesn't last long and the being straightens them-self, going neutral faced again, but they're still looking at Dib. A picture appears inside his head, just like if he were imagining something. But he knows it's not his. He can see clear images of planets that he's never seen before. With each planet the name of it is sent into his mind. Behind the images and names is the curiosity again that he can feel from the alien.

He sort of feels like they're trying to ask him something. Maybe if he knows these planets? But why? That wouldn't make any sense. The most logical thing Dib can think that they'd be asking, is maybe if Dib or Zim have come from any of those planets? Or just asking where they've come from in general.

With this the first thing that comes up in Dib’s mind is the Earth, before...Well, before. His eyes drift down to the floor and he thinks of the way the planet looked from space, and the differences between its appearance and the one he's currently on. This one probably wouldn't look too much different from Earth if it only had land masses on it. It just seems to be a bit larger.

Understanding flows into Dib's mind, and his eyes go back up again to see the alien slowly nod their head. For some reason he compares the being to the queens that Earth had, and he wonders if that is anything like what this creature actually is. Do they run this entire planet? Or just a specific part? Are there even more cities like this one? Hell, they could very well be a King for all he knows, and he compares them to that too. He hasn't really been able to tell the gender of anyone here since it's kind of hard to tell. He knows it's stupid to compare anything alien to Earth things and traditions, but he can't help it sometimes.

The alien seems to have noticed Dib's questions, and nods once more. He's confused on which part they're nodding about before the comparison image Dib was thinking about before of a human queen and the appearance of this alien comes up and he feels like they’re sort of confirming the similarities between the two. It sort of also feels like they're giving him permission to call them the queen. They disregarded the image of the king, does this mean they're female too since they have more in common with a queen? Dib feels like that's about right, and he sure hopes he's not wrong about this. It's all still a little confusing to understand things this way.

Dib's not expecting to hear Zim groan in frustration, and his head snaps over to look at him. Sometimes Dib will forget Zim's even there because he's so caught up in everything else happening around him.

“Why are we just standing here in silence?!” Zim demands, splaying his small hands out and looking around with his brows creased. “It's weird! And we have something urgent to discuss with you!” He points to the queen. “Well I'm assuming it's you we’re meant to talk to, you seem like the slimy fish leader.”

“Wait a minute, you're not getting any weird mind telepathy from her?” Dib asks Zim, gesturing to the queen.

“Are you saying she's speaking to you and not to Zim?” Zim asks.

“I-I guess so” Dib’s eyebrows knit together in confusion and he looks back over to the queen, about ready to figure out how to ask why she hasn’t tried talking to Zim at all. Maybe they can only do it with one person at a time? Either way it’s not like it really matters since Dib wanted to do the talking anyways, so he’s lucky that she happened to choose him. He’s still curious as to why she did choose to communicate with _ him _ though and not Zim.

“ _You?_  Not  _ me _ ? The obviously greater and more intelligent  _ Zim? _ ” Zim complains, louder than what Dib feels like is comfortable for the environment they’re in.

“ _Shut_ _ up _ , It doesn’t matter. There’s more important things right now.” Dib whispers back to Zim.

“Yes! Things that I should clearly be discussing too!” Zim hisses out.

“I can handle this.”

Dib gets an image of Zim from what looks like the queens point of view, and a wave of annoyance while her face cringes slightly and her tails swishes behind her in aggravation. He can’t help the small grin and huff of laughter that escapes through his nose. He sends understanding and agreement through to her while slightly nodding his head up and down. Well that’s gotta be one of the reasons why she chose to talk to Dib instead.

Dib is relieved that this way of communication has no actual words, so it’s fairly easy to understand, and he could very well just translate it all the best he can into sentences for him to comprehend fully. He probably should so that he can tell Zim anything important that he needs to know.

(Why have you come to our planet?) The queen asks, becoming more stern in her manner.

Oh, yeah. Dib almost forgot that they were there for a specific reason, and it’s not to be casually chatting with an alien queen on a world he knows nothing about. (I-we need your help. We crashed here accidentally while just looking for a few resources, I guess.) Dib explains, showing her his memories of when the voot crashed into the ocean.

Dib isn't getting much from her in terms of a reaction, like she's closed her mind off so she's a bit harder to read. (This green one,) Dib gets an image of Zim from her, along with a feeling of caution. (He seems quite volatile. We have a hard time trusting any outsiders of this planet that make their way on here. I certainly do not trust him. Why should I trust you?)

Dib completely understands why she doesn't trust Zim. He just gives off a very untrustworthy vibe upon meeting him and he definitely doesn't have any reasons that she  _ should  _ trust him. So it's a good thing she asked for reasons she can trust Dib, because he's got a lot more of those for himself than he ever would for Zim.

(Well, I was the protector of my home. From him actually.) He looks over to Zim for just a second, showing the queen a few memories from when Dib was younger and the fights they would have. Some of the times when Dib would stop Zim’s plans or win the fights, purposely leaving out the ones he happened to lose or look stupid in. He realizes this won’t make Zim look any better to her. In fact it will probably make him look worse. But at this point Dib doesn’t really care. If he can make himself look good enough then maybe they’ll trust him _just_ _enough_ for him to convince these aliens to help them.

(If you two hate each other so greatly, then why do you appear to be traveling together?) The queen asks, rightfully confused.

(It doesn't matter.) Dib spits out quickly on reaction. (It's a long story, and a little complicated.) He then adds slower as a small explanation. It's not something they need to get into, nor will knowing the reason why Dib is here in the first place help anything. (Listen, all we want to do is leave, and I think you’d be able to help us with that. You seem to have your own technology, and i’m a scientist. Well, we both are I guess.) Even though he never got into “real science” like his dad always tried to persuade him to do, he still knows how smart he is and could very well have been a real scientist if he wanted to.

Dib shows the queen a few of the inventions that he’s been most proud of throughout the years, and even some of the things he remembers that Zim made. But if anything he trusts himself more to work on building a ship than Zim. Not that Zim is just gonna let Dib build the ship that they’re both gonna be having to fly probably anyways.

(If there’s a place here where you build things, maybe you could let us look around and see if there’s anything we can use to build a ship to leave here.) Dib suggests, watching the queens still blank face to try and read any sort of reaction to what he’s explaining to her.

(No need.) She says, and Dib’s heart drops a little bit for a second, worried that she’s denying Dib’s suggestion. (There are aircraft's available on this planet.)

(Really?!) Dib gets excited and is relieved that he won't have to spend who knows how long on this planet just planning and building their own spaceship. But of course they have their own, how else would the queen know about all those other planets that she was showing Dib earlier? (So you guys actually go out there in space often? Are those other planets close by?)

(No. Not anymore. No one has been allowed to go past the atmosphere for long time.) She responds. (Those ships are only for emergencies. I suppose this is an emergency. We do not want you to stay here any longer than you must.)

Dib sighs in relief and sends out every amount of gratitude and thankfulness that he has in him. Unexpectedly he feels the connection between them cuts off, and his head suddenly feels a lot more empty. He's a little confused as to why she did this but he assumes she knows what she's doing.

“This is taking  _ too _ long.” Zim grits out through his teeth. “Have you even gotten to the point yet? It should've been the  _ first  _ thing you started to speak about, Dib-worm. Or can your tiny human mind not comprehend the urgency of this situation?”

“Yes, actually. I got it all situated.” Dib looks over to Zim with a smug look on his face that basically says, ‘I told you so.’ “And it hasn’t even been that long. I was actually able to do it fairly quick, and without violence or threats, may I add.”

“Whatever, my incredible Zim brain would've been  _ too _ much for her to handle anyways!” Zim claims. “So what garbage excuse for a ship are we supposed to be taking off this sad planet?”

“I don’t know, someone will probably take us to one soon. She basically said that we'd have to leave as soon as possible.” Dib explains.

“ _W_ _ ell _ ,” Zim says and turns his head to look at the queen. “I didn't want to come to this  _ horrible _ place anyways!” He spits out at her.

Dib looks at her to watch her reaction, surprised to see that she is no longer even facing them, but turned to the four armed alien that is stood by the side of the throne. They seem to be speaking to each other, and the queen has both her hands encasing one of the others hands on their bottom pair of arms.

She turns back around and Dib can feel that same pressure in his head from when she first came into his mind and formed this connection to speak. It doesn't last as long this time nor is it as painful, more of just a tiny little push to get back into in and since Dib knows what it is, he can invite it in more easy.

As she does this she raises her right arm and holds out her hand just to the left of Dib. He sees a large figure come to his side and his eyes quickly dart up to see the guard that was holding onto him earlier pass by him and go up to the queen. They lay something in her hand and she dismisses them just as quick. She bats her tails against the water and gracefully drifts down to be right in front of Dib. He could see that she was a tall creature but now she really towers over him standing right next to him like this, and it's very intimidating, especially with that huge jellyfish now above him and the tendrils flowing all around both of their bodies.

His eyes move all around it, taking everything in while he can feel her raise Dib's still cuffed hands up to where she can unlock it. When he feels it come loose and pulled off of his wrists he feels the water swirl all around his hands and he rubs at his wrists on reaction, even though the cuffs weren’t really tight enough to hurt. It still feels good to have them off. Dib looks up and into her deep black eyes, shining in the blue glow all around and nods once, sending thanks.

His eyes go up to her forehead to the dotted glowing pattern swirling all around it and down the middle of her face halfway, ending in a point. Now that she's closer to Dib he can make out the details of her face better. He recognizes the pattern as one of the same ones on the wall of the hallway they first came in through with all the other swirling designs on it. That makes sense to most likely be the patterns of past rulers, and the current one to commemorate them. It's pretty cool that they basically have glowing freckles on them, except they get them in neat designs instead of splayed out randomly.

The queen pointedly looks over to Zim, and Dib can practically feel her caution toward him. He watches Zim raise up his cuffed hands toward her, Gir still held between his elbows, and baring his teeth in a wide empty smile.

(You don’t have to worry about him, I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything.) Dib tells her, raising a hand about to lay it on her arm for reassurance on reaction, but immediately drops it when he realizes what he’s doing. That would probably just be awkward for him and he knows nothing about her or the way this species express comfort to each other. (He may be a giant moron, but he’s not stupid enough to pull anything here right now.)

The queen stares at him for a few seconds, and Dib keeps his eye contact with her to assure her that he’s not lying. She starts moving toward Zim and turns her head to look at him, and unlock his cuffs. As soon as they come off Zim moves Gir to hold onto him with his hands.

“Don’t try any shit, Zim.” Dib tells hims once, and Zim rolls his eyes at him.

(You’re lucky you landed so close to our borders. We wouldn’t have been alerted you were here if you didn’t set off one of our guardians and you most likely would not have survived long.) She shows the giant sea creature that attacked Dib and Zim when they crashed here, and how it were pulled back by bounds when it was triggered by them, that Dib must not have seen before.

(That was you? That was crazy! How did you people manage to even train or get  _ one _ of those things, let alone multiple of them to cooperate long enough to chain them up to guard your borders?)

(You misunderstand. We do not trap the Sleh’i. Each one has their own Fymm to train them and they are very willing to protect us.)

Dib is guessing that that’s what their species is called. Fymm. It’s nice to know the name of them now. Maybe their telepathy makes it so they can connect easier with animals, which seems like it’d be incredibly useful.

(Qinni will take you both to the train, from there it will take you to the city of Uedh.) The queen suddenly begins to show Dib images of something she’s seemed to planned out. The four armed alien that stands next to the throne bringing Zim and Dib to what very well reminds Dib of a futuristic looking bullet train.

“Wait, _ what _ ?” Dib speaks out loud out of his confusion. He can see Zim’s head quickly turn toward him in his peripheral vision, and Dib’s eyes flick over to him for a second and raises his hands toward him to tell him everything’s fine, but goes back to the queen right away. (We have to go to an entire other city? How long is that going to take?)

(The time of travel to Uedh is half of a moon rotation.) She says.

This tells Dib literally nothing, and he really doesn’t know why he bothered asking. He knows that half of a moon rotation on Earth would be about 2 weeks, but this planet seems bigger and the days could be longer, so it could take a lot longer than that. Not that there’s anything he can do about it, but he knows Zim sure won’t be happy. Dib will have to tell him about it later when they’re not around anybody for when Zim throws a fit about it. (Ok, what do we do when we get to this city?)

(There is the main capitol building where you will ask for Suaf’. He will be expecting you after I send word of the situation and he will provide you with a ship.) The queen explains.

Dib sighs deeply, “Okay.” He whispers out to himself.

(Qinni?) She looks behind her shoulder and floats backwards a bit, the tendrils of the jellyfish flowing with the movement. Qinni makes her way down to Zim and Dib, ready to lead them to the train. (I still have no reason to trust either of you, so I will be watching you. Do anything to make me think you are a high enough threat to the people on this planet, and you will be killed.)

Dib only nods, not really having anything else to say. That’s perfectly understandable, so he doesn’t have any reason to argue with it. He’ll just have to keep an eye on Zim and make sure he doesn’t do anything to fuck them over.  

Qinni looks at Dib with her soft four black eyes. Despite her height and structure she doesn’t give off a threatening vibe and her chubby round face looks kind. She has glowing freckles in a design on her forehead too, and she even has some underneath her eyes. He feels that same spark of a connection in his mind and now his head feels even more full with another person in it. It doesn’t feel full for long though because he can feel the connection between him and the queen go away and she’s not there anymore. Dib doesn’t get anything from Qinni and she only gestures her head slightly to the direction behind them before moving that way.

He turns to Zim and nudges him, “We gotta follow her now.”

“Finally.” Zim says, turning around. The holes of his Pak open up and small jets come out and turn on, pushing him forwards in a small quick burst at first, then slowing down to maintain a consistent speed behind Qinni.

Dib scoffs softly, “seriously?” He whispers under his breath. He attempts to walk his way over to them, but being surrounded completely by water, he can only move at an achingly slow pace. The only reason Dib moved so quick before with hardly any effort was because he was being pushed by a massive alien who could easily get around with quick bats of their tail. He could swim, but he doesn't want to look awkward and still it wouldn't be fast.

“ _ Zim!” _ Dib calls out to get Zim’s attention.

Zim swirls around and comes to a halt, “ _ What?!” _

“Come over here.” Dib tells him. He sees Qinni come to a stop several feet away and turns around to observe them. He feels a wave of confusion run across his mind from her.

“Why don't you just come over here? Have you suddenly forgotten how to operate your limbs,  _ stupid _ Dib?” Zim says.

“No, just-” Dib growls in frustration, balling his hands up in fists. He stands there for a few seconds, his lips pressed tightly together while he stares at the floor with all the swirling lights inside the pathway before he makes the decision to just get it over with and swim over there to spare having a pointless argument.

When Dib gets to Zim he can’t help but feel a little embarrassed. “I need to hang onto you.” He can’t believe he has to do something like this.

“Excuse me?” Zim looks up at him, his face scrunching up.

“It’s just easier to move that way. I don’t have a jet pack to help me get around like you do.” Dib says, gesturing to Zim’s pak.

Zim raises a finger up at him, “Don’t touch me.” He tells Dib. Something begins to extend from the top hole of his pak, and Dib recognizes it as one of his pak legs. It stays folded up and Zim rotates his body so that his back is more toward Dib. Dib grabs a hold of the leg and Zim's jets kick on again to start moving once more.

Once they follow Qinni out of the building the same way they came in from she stops and looks up. (We must go up.) She pushes herself off of the ground, batting her thick tail against the water and begins to swim upwards.

“I guess we gotta go up.” Dib says.

“I'm aware of that, Dib-worm.” Zim replies back.

Dib rolls his eyes as the thrusters on Zim's pak point downwards and they start to follow her up. Dib looks below them as he watches everything grow smaller. He notices movement around and inside the city and sees more of the glowing multi-colored figures of the aliens swimming about. They must of all came out when Dib and Zim were inside. Quite a lot of them are still and he wonders how many of them are staring up at him and Zim right now. If the whole city is watching them.

He’s a little disappointed that he can’t stay longer to learn more about them. Being on a different planet is awesome, but it’s a little torturous for him if all he can do really is look and just not  _ know _ anything. Even if Dib was able to stay longer, he knows he wouldn’t be able to since his helmet is probably close to being out of air, and he can’t just live in the water.

They go through the same place they first came in from at the top of the cavern. Dib doesn’t exactly know where they’re being taken since there’s nothing up here except the surface of the ocean. At least, nothing that he could see.

Dib stands corrected when they break the surface and in the near distance he can see something shiny moving towards them quickly that he recognizes as the train he saw in his head. It keeps going past them until it stops close to the end. Dib can’t see inside it at all, it’s only a dark grey metal chrome, and he can’t even see any ways to get on board, only the different sections of the cars. He goes back underneath the water for a minute just to see if there’s any tracks that he didn’t see before, but still sees nothing. So this is like a train, boat thing he guesses.  

Qinni shows him that they have to swim over to the very end. When they get there Dib watches an area on the tip of the nose glow blue in an outline of an arch, then the inside of that line slides open from the bottom. It’s a little too far up to reach and Dib is about to look around for the way they’re supposed to get up before a long slot opens up beneath the door and a platform slides out and unfolds into steps and down into the water enough to step on it.

Zim is the first one to make his way onto the platform and onto the next step, the pak leg that Dib was holding and the jets going back into his pak. “Finally! Water is so  _ horribly _ restricting. Obviously anything that evolved living in something like that is slow and stupid. Slimy and -” Zim cuts off and shivers all dramatically, “ _ Disgusting. _ ” He finishes as Dib climbs up.

Dib stays on his knees when he’s fully on the platform, the water still up to his torso, and turns around to look at Qinni, (Thanks.) He’s surprised at how nice these people have been to him. He wasn’t expecting at all for this to go so well. It’s nice to be around aliens for once that aren’t such a pain.

(Veah was gracious to be so kind. I wouldn’t have expected her to provide outsiders with any help at all considering our history.) She’s vague about that last part, and doesn’t provide much imagery to go into further detail. Dib is curious, but he’s not about to ask about their entire history when they’re about to leave.

He expresses his appreciation for all this one more time and Qinni nods before he can feel the connection in his head be severed, and she disappears beneath the waves.

Dib turns around and can see Zim has already gone inside. He grabs onto the next step to hoist himself to stand as fast as he can. When he’s in the doorway he starts to reach behind his neck to take his helmet off, but he suddenly feels very light headed and his vision quickly starts to turn black as his arm goes limp to his side. He tries to look for a place to sit down but doesn’t see very much before he can feel himself go to the floor and everything turns dark.


End file.
